RStudio Screen Reader Support

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Gary Ritchie
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Author: JooYoung Seo, Gary Ritchie

Table of Contents

Introduction

This article aims to provide screen-reader users with some effective strategies for RStudio IDE navigation.

Some features discussed in this document require RStudio 2023.12.1 or newer. In a few cases, you must know if you are using RStudio Desktop or RStudio Workbench / RStudio Server. If RStudio is loaded in your web browser, you are using RStudio Workbench or RStudio Server; otherwise, you have RStudio Desktop.

RStudio Desktop

Screen-reader support for RStudio Desktop requires RStudio 2023.12.1 or newer. Older versions have some support, but improvements continue to be made and we strongly recommend using the most recent version. As a desktop application, you can access the main menubar using standard shortcuts for your platform. For example, on Windows, Alt+F will focus the File menu.

RStudio Workbench / RStudio Server

Basic Concept

RStudio Workbench (previously RStudio Server Pro) and RStudio Server Open Source are web-based applications loaded in your preferred browser. To put it simply, you can understand it as an online version of RStudio Desktop.

Since the main menubar (File, Edit, etc.) is part of the web page, it requires slightly different shortcuts. Tapping Alt (on Windows), for example, puts focus on the Web Browser’s main menu, not the RStudio menu.

In most cases, screen reader users will have to keep turning off their virtual cursors (also known as browse mode and quick navigation mode) to better interact with the RStudio web application. We will revisit this concept in more detail later on after we configure some required screen reader settings.

  • Notes: while any combinations of screen readers and browsers are supported technically, we have tested the following pairs for RStudio Workbench / RStudio Server.
Table 1: Tested combinations of screen readers and browsers.
Operating System Screen Reader Browser
MS Windows 10/11 JAWS version 2024 Google Chrome
MS Windows 10/11 NVDA version 2023.3 Google Chrome
macOS 14.1 (Sonoma) VoiceOver Safari

Screen Reader Settings

It is essential to enable screen reader support in RStudio. Once set, this setting is persisted for future RStudio sessions. The option is available to toggle via the main menu at Help / Accessibility / Screen Reader Support, or via the Global Options dialog, under the Accessibility panel.

The easiest way to enable the “Screen Reader Support” mode, however, is using its own keyboard shortcut by pressing “Alt+Shift+/ (forward slash)” on Windows or Linux; “Ctrl+Shift+U” on Mac.

Once the “Screen Reader Support” mode is toggled on, you will hear the following dialog message:

Are you sure you want to enable screen reader support? The application will reload to apply the change.

You can press tab to find “Yes” button and press spacebar.

You will then be asked the following question again:

Reload site? Changes you made may not be saved.

After tabbing to find “Reload” button and pressing spacebar, your RStudio will be reloaded with the screen reader support enabled.

Besides the basic screen reader support, you can adjust various accessibility settings at Help / Accessibility / Accessibility Options…

To open this configuration, do the following:

  1. Make sure your screen reader’s browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode) is off. If you are using NVDA, you can switch between browse and focus modes by pressing NVDA+Spacebar. JAWS users can do this by pressing JAWS+Z; VoiceOver users can toggle it by pressing left and right arrow keys at the same time.
  2. Press Alt+Shift+H on Windows and Linux to put focus on the “Help” menu in the main menubar; press Ctrl+Opt+H on Mac.
  • Notes for Mac Users: the default VoiceOver modifier (VO) key conflict with any RStudio’s shortcuts using Ctrl+Opt key combinations like above. Please use the VoiceOver pass-through keys (Ctrl+Opt+Tab) each time before pressing any RStudio’s shortcuts requiring Ctrl+Opt key combination. Or, you can change the VO modifier key into “Caps Lock” via VoiceOver Utility (VO+F8) / General / “Keys to use as the VoiceOver modifier” setting.
  1. Hit down arrow key several times to find “Accessibility” menu and expand it via right arrow key.
  2. Once the menu expanded, press down-arrow key for few times to find “Accessibility Options…” and enter on it.

In the accessibility options, you can navigate each setting using tab and arrow keys. You need to keep the screen reader browse mode (also known as virtual cursor) off to better interact with this dialog box.

The following includes some settings we recommend screen-reader users make sure to keep turning on.

  • Screen reader support (requires restart)
  • Reduce user interface animations

The first item, “Screen Reader support,” is the switch we have just enabled and you will never want to turn it off.

The second recommendation, “Reduce User Interface Animations,” will simplify some visual aspects so that you can better understand the RStudio environment using screen readers. This should be enabled automatically when you turn on screen reader support but it's worth checking to be sure.

Application Layout

As described in the basic concept above, RStudio Workbench and RStudio Server are web-based applications loaded inside your browser.

To provide screen-reader users with overview of the application layout, RStudio has been annotated to divide it up into named landmarks (also known as regions in some screen readers). The regions in the default visual layout of RStudio are as follows:

  1. Banner (the RStudio logo in the upper-left)
  2. Navigation (the main menu and toolbar)
  3. Main Workbench (the area below the main menu and toolbar, containing 4 quadrants)
  1. TabSet1 (upper-right quadrant, containing various feature tabs including Environment and History)
  2. TabSet2 (lower-right quadrant, containing various feature tabs including Files and Help)
  3. Source (upper-left quadrant, contains files open in text editor)
  4. Console (lower-left, contains Console and other optional tabs such as Terminal and Jobs)
  1. Content Info Warning Bar (closable messagebar occasionally shown below the workbench)
  • Notes: To move around the user interface landmarks, you have to turn on screen readers’ browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode).

Menubar Navigation

RStudio Workbench or RStudio Server have customizable keyboard shortcuts to get focus to the main menu, at which point the arrow keys can be used to navigate around the menus in essentially the same manner as standard application menus. If using RStudio Desktop, use standard operating system shortcuts for operating the menu.

On Windows and Linux, each menu is access via “Alt+Shift” key combination; on Mac, it is “Ctrl+Opt” modifiers.

A full list of shortcuts for accessing each menu is as follows:

Table 2: Menubar shortcut keys.
Description Windows & Linux Mac
File Menu Alt+Shift+F Ctrl+Opt+F
Edit Menu Alt+Shift+E Ctrl+Opt+I
Code Menu Alt+Shift+C Ctrl+Opt+C
View Menu Alt+Shift+V Ctrl+Opt+V
Plots Menu Alt+Shift+P Ctrl+Opt+P
Session Menu Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S Ctrl+Opt+Shift+S
Build Menu Alt+Shift+B Ctrl+Opt+B
Debug Menu Alt+Shift+U Ctrl+Opt+U
Profile Menu Alt+Shift+I Ctrl+Opt+O
Tools Menu Alt+Shift+S Ctrl+Opt+L
Help Menu Alt+Shift+H Ctrl+Opt+H

  • Notes: Before accessing menubar, make sure your screen reader’s browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode) is off. If you are using NVDA, you can switch between browse and focus modes by pressing NVDA+Spacebar. JAWS users can do this by pressing JAWS+Z; VoiceOver users can toggle it by pressing left and right arrow keys at the same time.

  • Notes for Mac Users: the default VoiceOver modifier (VO) key conflict with any RStudio’s shortcuts using Ctrl+Opt key combinations like above. Please use the VoiceOver pass-through keys (Ctrl+Opt+Tab) each time before pressing any RStudio’s shortcuts requiring Ctrl+Opt key combination. Or, you can change the VO modifier key into “Caps Lock” via VoiceOver Utility (VO+F8) / General / “Keys to use as the VoiceOver modifier” setting.

Command Prompt

A great way to find and issue commands is the Command Palette. This is a searchable list of RStudio commands accessed using Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows and Linux, and Cmd+Shift+P on macOS.

Keyboard Shortcuts Help

RStudio has a list of keyboard shortcuts that you can refer to anytime. To bring up the keyboard help, press “Alt+Shift+K” on Windows or Linux; “Opt+Shift+K” on Mac.

Each section has been marked up with proper headings (H2 tag) so that you can jump between different categories using screen readers’ quick navigation keys.

Under the headings, shortcuts are organized in a simple table form in which you can utilize screen readers’ table navigation keys.

Simply close the opened tab after you finish reading the content to go back to the RStudio main page.

Console Navigation

On the RStudio main page, you can move from anywhere to console by pressing “Ctrl+2” directly.

As this is an input area, you need to make sure your screen reader’s browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode) is off. If you are using NVDA, you can switch between browse and focus modes by pressing NVDA+Spacebar. JAWS users can do this by pressing JAWS+Z; VoiceOver users can toggle it by pressing left and right arrow keys at the same time.

You can use up/down-arrow key to cycle through your recent command history, and you can even edit any of the commands via standard methods (e.g., left/right arrow key to move around characters; backspace/delete keys to erase any of them).

Everything you type in the console will be executed via current R session as soon as you press enter key, and screen readers will announce the corresponding output in real time.

If you would like to review the executed output in more detail via arrow keys, you first need to put your cursor to the “Console Output” area by pressing “Alt+Shift+2” on Windows or Linux; “Ctrl+Opt+2” on Mac. Since the console output area requires browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode), turn it on in case your arrow keys do not respond as you expected.

An useful shortcut key to clear the entire console output is “Ctrl+L”. You may want to press this key before executing a new command to secure a cleaner output buffer for screen readers.

More useful keyboard shortcuts for source editor can be found under the “Console” and “Editing (Console and Source)” sections at Keyboard Shortcuts Help (“Alt+Shift+K” on Windows or Linux; “Opt+Shift+K” on Mac).

  • Notes for Mac Users: the default VoiceOver modifier (VO) key conflict with any RStudio’s shortcuts using Ctrl+Opt key combinations like above. Please use the VoiceOver pass-through keys (Ctrl+Opt+Tab) each time before pressing any RStudio’s shortcuts requiring Ctrl+Opt key combination. Or, you can change the VO modifier key into “Caps Lock” via VoiceOver Utility (VO+F8) / General / “Keys to use as the VoiceOver modifier” setting.

  • Notes for Cursor Movement: In any event your screen readers do not read anything when using up/down-arrow keys in either console input area or source editor, please place your cursor at the end of current line by pressing “End” key, and then try again.

Source Editor Navigation

On the RStudio main page, you can move from anywhere to source editor by pressing “Ctrl+1” directly.

This is also an input area where you need to make sure your screen reader’s browse mode (also known as virtual cursor or QuickNav mode) is off. If you are using NVDA, you can switch between browse and focus modes by pressing NVDA+Spacebar. JAWS users can do this by pressing JAWS+Z; VoiceOver users can toggle it by pressing left and right arrow keys at the same time.

Technically, you can utilize all the standard navigation keys (e.g., Home, End, Arrows, PgUp/Down) with “Ctrl” and/or “Shift” key combinations to edit your source code text.

An useful shortcut key to control the tab key behavior is “Alt+Shift+[ (left bracket)” on Windows or Linux; “Ctrl+Opt+[ (left bracket)” on Mac. This toggles a mode of whether or not the Tab key will always move focus to the next element , even when in a text editing control.

More useful keyboard shortcuts for source editor can be found under the “Source” and “Editing (Console and Source)” sections at Keyboard Shortcuts Help (“Alt+Shift+K” on Windows or Linux; “Opt+Shift+K” on Mac).

  • Notes for Cursor Movement: In any event your screen readers do not read anything when using up/down-arrow keys in either console input area or source editor, please place your cursor at the end of current line by pressing “End” key, and then try again.

  • Notes: You can minimize the efforts to switch between the screen readers’ browse modes by enabling “Entire page has application role” via Help / Accessibility / Accessibility Options…

Contact

This document will be kept updated reflecting the latest RStudio’s accessibility improvements.

We always very much welcome your feedback or questions on our product accessibility. Please email accessibility-related questions and comments anytime to accessibility@posit.co.

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