The Globe and Mail screen reader tutorial

Table of contents

Introduction

This tutorial gives an overview of how to navigate The Globe and Mail website with the use of screen readers. We also have a tutorial for screen magnification users and a tutorial for those not using any assistive technology.

CELA users who are using The Globe and Mail website via CELA are not required to create an account in order to access the content. However, there are some features of the website that are only available if you have created an account and logged in such as “Listen to this article”, bookmarking articles and posting comments. There is no cost to create an account. Instructions to create an account are included in this tutorial.

General considerations

This tutorial mainly focusses on accessing The Globe and Mail on a PC, but many of the concepts described here are also applicable using a mobile browser.

While The Globe and Mail website offers a large assortment of content, such as videos, podcasts, puzzles and horoscopes, not all of these sections are equally compatible with screen readers. We will therefore only cover main concepts for finding and accessing text-based articles of interest to you.

Most screen readers offer shortcuts for quickly accessing a list of links, jumping from button to button or finding a heading at various levels, etc. These may make navigation more efficient, but you could also jump from one control, such as a link or a button, to another using the tab or shift+tab keys.

As you familiarize yourself with the contents and layout of the page you may wish to use the “read all” function of your screen reader or explore all available options with the tab keys or arrow keys. Then, as you start to know your topics of interest and sections of the website you want to reach regularly, you may find that using links lists and first letter navigation, or jumping to headings or other page elements, becomes more efficient.

Overview

The Globe and Mail is a major Canadian newspaper that covers national and international news, business, politics and culture. The newspaper has provided CELA users with access to their online content through their website. This allows users to read articles as they are published, search the website, and access additional features such as subscribing to newsletters and podcasts or viewing puzzles or horoscopes. The website can be accessed using a mobile device or desktop computer.

Accessing The Globe and Mail from the CELA website

Log in to the CELA website.

  1. Navigate to the Newspapers page by selecting “Newspapers” from the top navigation menu.
  2. Locate the section titled “Newspapers by region”.
  3. Locate “The Globe and Mail” in the National section and select this link. Note that you could also use the links list feature of your screen reader and type the first few letters of the name of the newspaper, for example, g-l-o.

Website layout

If you are using a PC, we suggest that you maximize the screen before continuing. It is not required, but without maximizing the screen, the layout may be different and not correspond to the description below. To maximize the screen, on a PC press Alt+Space and then X.

While the contents of various sections of the website differ, some elements are consistent throughout the site. Main sections of the page are grouped in regions. You may have the option to use region navigation shortcuts to quickly locate them. See navigating by region in your screen reader documentation. Not all screen readers indicate regions, however, for those who do, we will mention them in the tutorial.

At the top of the page is a main banner region. It contains “The Globe and Mail” link. Selecting this link will bring you to the home page. Other important elements to note in this region are the main menu and the keyword search feature.

Both the main menu and the search are indicated as popup buttons. You can use the “find next button” or “find previous button” keyboard shortcuts to locate them. Check your screen reader documentation for details

Main menu

When activating the main menu button, it displays a menu containing links to the main categories of the newspaper, as well as links to log in, subscribe, register and get help. Some items are themselves menus opening other subcategories. These submenus are indicated by the label “open accordion button”. When selected, you will then find a button titled “close accordion” that you can activate to collapse the submenu.

Search feature

The search feature allows users to search the entire contents of the website by keyword. On mobile devices or, if the browser window containing The Globe and Mail website on your PC is not maximized, the search is located within the main menu.

Following the banner region, you might find one or sometimes two navigation regions. One contains a list of links to various items also contained in the main menu described above. If you select a section with subcategories, similar to activating the accordion pop-up button in the main menu described above, these subcategories will also be displayed as a series of links in another navigation region further down the page. Once you start knowing the types of contents and the way they are grouped, you will be able to quickly navigate to the link to your topic of interest by using the links list feature of your screen reader and first letter navigation to find it.

Along the bottom of every page is a footer. This contains links to legal and site policies, such as terms and conditions, as well as links under the headings Subscribe, Business services, Contact us, Reader services and About us. There are also links to download The Globe and Mail’s mobile app and to their social media accounts.

Main content

Once you have narrowed down your selection and activated a link to a category, subcategory or specific article, the quickest way to reach the main content of the current page is to locate the first heading on the page. It is a level 1 heading. Note that on the home page there is no such level 1 heading since we have not yet made any content selection. You could find it by going to the top of the page and pressing H to find the first heading or pressing the digit one on the number row to find the first heading at level 1. Here you will find either a list of links to topics related to the section of the newspaper you currently have selected or the main body of the article you have selected.

Home page

The home page is the landing page of The Globe and Mail website where most users will begin. It highlights the most popular topics and articles of the moment, which change throughout the day.

Past the section containing links to main menu found on every page, you will find a list of links to popular topics contained in a navigation region. They are followed by some of the most popular articles. The page continues with several more sections to explore grouped under headings. The home page is a good option when you want to browse the headlines of the day and other trending and popular topics. There are also puzzles, videos, podcasts and newsletters one can subscribe to. As noted above, not all of these sections are well suited for screen readers, and videos are not currently available to CELA users.

Newspaper sections

The main sections of the newspaper can be accessed at any time from the main menu.

For example, to navigate to the Canada section:

  1. Activate the “Open the main menu” button at the top of the page.
  2. Select the option “Canada”, third in the list. Optionally, if you would prefer to navigate to a sub-category within this section:
    1. Open the dropdown menu by selecting the “Open Accordion button” right after “Canada”.
    2. Select the option that interests you. The Canada section has sub-categories for different provinces and regions of Canada.
  3. If you selected “Canada” (i.e., did not go to a sub-category), you will be on the main page for this section. The layout is similar to the layout of the home page, but with topics within the Canada section. Below the title “Canada” at the top of the page is a list of all sub-sections of this category grouped in a navigation region. You can quickly find it by going to the first heading level one on the page.
  4. One can navigate to and select any of these sub-sections and a new page will open with similar layout as the previous one featuring the newly selected topic.
  5. Below the heading for the currently selected topic are top articles in this category, followed by more articles that are listed in reverse-chronological order (from most to least recent). Not all are marked with headings, so use the tab key or browse the list of links to articles, rather than jumping by heading, to avoid inadvertently missing some links.

Reading an article

To read an article, select the title, which is a link to the full article. The article preview text and image also link to the full article, when applicable.

Articles are all laid out in the same way:

  • The article title is at heading level 1.
  • Following the title is the following information (some of these may vary depending on applicability):
    • Author’s name, which is linked to the author’s Globe and Mail profile page
    • Location
    • News outlet source
    • Article publication date or time (if it was published that day)
    • When the article was last updated
  • Following this information is an image with a caption.
  • Below the image caption are direct links to comments on the article, to share the article and to save the article for later (one must be logged in to access this feature).
  • Below these links is the option to “Listen to this article”. There are articles that may not have the listen to this article option discoverable by screen readers. Full instructions on listening to articles are included in this tutorial.
  • Following “Listen to this article” is the full text of the article.
  • Most articles will have more images interspersed throughout the text.
  • Most articles have comments. Following the article is a heading that says “Comments”. Note that the heading level may vary. Below that is an in-page link with the text “Read or post comments” and a “toggle comments” button.  Activating either the link or the button expands the comments:
    • First, there is information about commenting on The Globe and Mail.
    • Following this information is a text box in which you can write a comment. Note that you will only be able to post a comment if you are registered and logged in.
    • Next are the comments that have been made on this article. No log in is required to read the comments.
  • After the comments are related articles and links to authors and topics related to this article.

Creating an account (optional)

Note that this is an optional step to access features such as “Listen to this article”, bookmarking articles and posting comments. There is no cost to create an account with The Globe and Mail. To create a Globe and Mail account, follow these steps:

  1. In the main menu, select Register (second to last option).
  2. To register with an email address:
    1. Fill out the form with a valid email address, password and postal code.
    2. If you would like to receive newsletters from The Globe and Mail, select the box indicating you would like to subscribe.
    3. Select "Create Account".
  3. To register using your Google or Apple credentials:
    1. Select “Continue with Google” or “Continue with Apple”.
    2. You will be prompted to select an account you are logged in to or to enter your account credentials.
  4. A new page will populate stating that an email has been sent to you. Open your email inbox and locate the email sent by The Globe and Mail. Once found, follow the instructions within. Alternatively, you may be asked to approve the log-in from your mobile device.
  5. When you log in for the first time, you will have four optional steps to customize your Globe and Mail experience.
    • Note that step 3 invites you to subscribe to The Globe and Mail. As a CELA user, you already have full access to The Globe and Mail, so select “Continue without subscribing”.

Using the “Listen to this article” feature

The Globe and Mail website has a built-in feature for users to listen to articles in audio format They are read with a synthetic (computer-generated) voice. To listen to an article:

  1. Log in to your Globe and Mail account.
  2. Open an article and locate the “toggle audio” button just before the article text.
  3. Activate this button to open the player.
  4. Select the “play toggle” button to play or pause the audio.
    1. On iOS the 2-finger double tap, otherwise known as magic tap, can pause and resume the audio once it is started.
    2. The keyboard shortcut K may work on a PC.
  5. The playback speed can be changed by selecting the “toggle speed menu” pop-up menu. A menu with various speed options opens. Your selection will be saved to your account and automatically selected the next time you listen to an article.

For more information about this feature, you can read The Globe and Mail’s help page on audio on articles.