# JAWS screen reader, Discourse and Shortcuts

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** accessibility, ux
**Created:** [May 29, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095 "2026-05-29T17:30:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

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### Author: ![awesomerobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/awesomerobot/32/142900_2.png) [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/jaws-screen-reader-discourse-and-shortcuts/404095/4 "2026-06-02T17:21:05Z")

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> [@happyhappy](#):
>
> Is there a way to have the Discourse shortcuts take precedence but allow JAWS to verbalize the aria codings?

Good question! our expectations so far have been that people using screenreaders will not use our shortcuts and default to the screenreader navigation. So the gap here is that we are not announcing content for screenreaders when using Discourse shortcuts.

I think we can add announcements, but I don’t think this is a trivial change, so while it’s something we can look into it’s not something that will be available immediately.

> [@happyhappy](#):
>
> here is a slightly edited image of our categories page. When JAWS verbalizes each category, it includes all the sub-categories without a break and without a simple way to select any of them.

Thanks, the screenshot helps narrow this down.

When navigating from row to row I can reproduce the report with all the content of the table cell being read, but this is expected when navigating a table. To enter the specific table cell and read each group of content (heading, description, links) I can use the up/down arrow keys to go from individual item to individual item. Is that what’s not working?

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