If you thought you knew almost all there is to know about what Internet Explorer 11 brings to the table, then get ready for a surprise. Microsoft has added in some new technologies into its latest browser for blind and visually impaired users.
These new features are designed to help these users browse the Internet, and they include technologies that are capable of working with screen readers — like Redmond’s very own Windows Narrator.
The company talked about this, while confirming that IE11 also comes with a built-in auto-correct tool that automatically handles misspelled words:
“With the editing and input improvements in IE11, screen readers can better inform users about the current content of an editing region, and typing with East Asian languages using an Input Method Editor (IME) is now easier. With these changes, IE11 improves the experience of the next generation of cloud-based applications for a growing portion of the world’s population.”
For example, the upcoming browser has been designed in such a way that pressing the backspace keys now also notifies the screen reader which letter was deleted — and this can then be announced.
“When reading or writing an email or other Web content, users need to understand the formatting of the message, not just the raw text. IE11 provides more detailed notifications to screen readers, so users can better understand the content they are reading or editing.”
Another example is that Microsoft Narrator now says ‘bold’ and ‘end bold’ to notify the user that a particular section of the text has been emphasized with the bold styling.
These are all helpful new additions, and will surely be appreciated by users that upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 once it officially launches as the default browser in Windows 8.1 on October 18.
