What does Enable accessibility mode for screen readers mean?
When you enable accessibility mode for screen readers, it adjusts the interface so that assistive tools like NVDA or VoiceOver can properly read and navigate the content. This includes adding proper labels to buttons and links, ensuring a logical tab/keyboard navigation order, and providing text descriptions for visual elements like icons and images. Essentially, it makes the entire experience usable for people who can’t see the screen and rely on software to read it out loud.
Adding to what @devan-skeem mentioned, one thing worth knowing is that enabling this mode can sometimes change how certain interactive elements behave visually too, not just how they are announced.
For example, focus indicators become more prominent, and some animations or auto-updating content may be paused or slowed down to avoid overwhelming the screen reader.
If you are using NVDA specifically, I would also recommend enabling it alongside Browse Mode so you can navigate the page by headings and landmarks rather than tabbing through every single element one by one.
Makes a huge difference when the page has a lot of content. Let me know if you are running into anything specific after turning it on. I’d be happy to help troubleshoot.