Mindy - 8:28 am on May 16, 2006 (gmt 0)

Yes, the newest versions of screen readers support Firefox, but most users do not upgrade regularly as it is very expensive. A few hundred pounds to get a new version of your software is a lot of money, especially for someone who is, quite possibly, already living off benefits.

I would hazard a guess that most JAWS users are using version 5.x or 6.x of JAWS at the moment, and you will even find users still on a 4.x version of JAWS.

Besides, no matter how many times you tell people that Firefox is a better browser, they will still want to stick with what they know. So what do you do for the vast majority who don't even know there is an alternative? You can't just say "Well, frankly, on those sites that don't work right in IE, users can just go find another browser." It's not going to happen. Users are more likely to go find another site.

I realise you were joking, but we encounter this attitude all too often from site owners who think the onus is on the user, not realising that if a user has no reason to stay on their site and their site is hard to use, the user will find a different site.