Speed tests and screen readers

TL;DR

Internet Speed at a Glance is the only speed test of the speed test top 10 that works with a screen reader. This speed test starts automatically and immediately tells you in which range the measured download speed lies.

The other speed tests from the quick test top 10 suffer from one or more of the following problems:

  1. It is not possible to start the speed test keyboard only
  2. You don't get feedback when the speed test is ready
  3. The measurements are mentioned out of context
 

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method of measurement
  3. Speed tests to test
  4. Findings
  5. Conclusions
 

Introduction

Several accessibility requirements relate to using a screen reader. The ultimate test is therefore to use a screen reader to get an impression of which speed tests can be used under these circumstances.

 

Method of measurement

For this test we visit the homepage of the speed test and try to use the speed test based on the text spoken in combination with the keyboard.

The test is invoked immediately after loading the homepage.

For this test the NVDA screen reader (Version 2023.1.0.27913) is used.

The NVDA about page

 

Speed tests to test

For this test, only the speed tests from the speed test top 10 are tested.

 

Findings

In general, the following issues occur when a speed test is used with a screen reader:

  1. It is not possible to start the speed test keyboard only
  2. You don't get feedback when the speed test is ready
  3. The measurements are mentioned out of context

That is why the most common labels we assign to speed tests are: "More or less usable" and "Not usable".

Internet Speed at a Glance is the only positive exception. This speed test starts automatically and tells you immediately in which range the measured download speed lies.

  1. Cloudflare More or less usable
  2. Fast More or less usable
  3. Google Fiber Not usable
  4. Internet Speed at a Glance Usable
  5. M-Lab Not usable
  6. Meter.net More or less usable
  7. Ookla Speedtest Not usable
  8. SpeedOf.me Not usable
  9. SpeedSmart More or less usable
  10. TestMy.net More or less usable
 

Conclusions

If you want to use a quick test in combination with a screen reader, only Internet Speed at a Glance will suffice of the top 10 speed tests.

The following 5 speed tests of the top 10 speed tests are more or less usable: Cloudflare, Fast, Meter.net, SpeedSmart and TestMy.net.

The following 4 speed tests of the top 10 speed tests cannot be used with a screen reader: Google Fiber, M-Lab, Ookla Speedtest and SpeedOf.me.