This page covers common inline/phrasing elements, listen with a screen reader to hear whether each one changes what's actually announced, or only how it looks.
Where two elements share the same default visual rendering but carry different semantic meaning, they're paired directly, so you can compare them back to back rather than trying to remember what the first one sounded like several examples later.
<b> and <strong> both render bold by default. <b> carries no semantic weight, it's for stylistic bold text with no special importance. <strong> indicates strong importance, seriousness, or urgency.
Please read the terms and conditions before continuing.
<p>Please read the <b>terms and conditions</b> before continuing.</p>Warning: do not disconnect the power supply during installation.
<p>Warning: <strong>do not disconnect the power supply</strong> during installation.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether <strong> receives any distinct vocal treatment (a change in pitch, emphasis, or an announced label) compared with <b>, or whether both are read identically.
<i> and <em> both render italic by default. <i> is for text set off in an alternate voice or mood, such as a technical term or foreign phrase, with no added stress. <em> indicates stress emphasis that would change the meaning of the sentence if spoken aloud.
The term homo sapiens refers to modern humans.
<p>The term <i>homo sapiens</i> refers to modern humans.</p>I did send the email yesterday.
<p>I <em>did</em> send the email yesterday.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether <em> is read with any actual vocal stress, or whether it's read identically to plain text and <i>.
<s> and <del> both render with a line through the text by default. <s> marks text that is no longer accurate or relevant, without implying an edit took place. <del> specifically marks content that has been removed, the tracked-changes sense.
Regular price: $120 $89
<p>Regular price: <s>$120</s> $89</p>The event was cancelled postponed.
<p>The event was <del>cancelled</del> postponed.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether <del> is announced as a deletion (for example, "deletion, cancelled") or read with no indication anything was removed, identically to <s>.
<u> and <ins> both render underlined by default. <u> is a non-semantic, presentational underline, for example, flagging a misspelling. <ins> specifically marks content that has been inserted or added.
The word seperate is misspelled.
<p>The word <u>seperate</u> is misspelled.</p>The meeting is now scheduled for Wednesday at 3pm.
<p>The meeting is now scheduled for <ins>Wednesday</ins> at 3pm.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether <ins> is announced as an insertion, or read identically to <u> with no indication anything was added.
<abbr> marks an abbreviation or acronym. Its title attribute can provide the expanded form.
The WHO issued new guidelines today.
<p>The <abbr title="World Health Organization">WHO</abbr> issued new guidelines today.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether the title is announced at all, and if so, whether "WHO" is spelled out letter by letter, read as a word, or the expanded title is read instead or in addition.
<q> marks a short, inline quotation. Browsers automatically generate the surrounding quotation marks via CSS, they aren't typed in the content.
As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words
.
<p>As the saying goes, <q>actions speak louder than words</q>.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether this is announced as a quotation (for example, "quote... end quote"), or whether only the browser-generated punctuation characters are read as plain text, or neither.
<mark> marks text highlighted for reference purposes, such as a search term matched within a larger passage.
Please review the highlighted section before submitting.
<p>Please review the <mark>highlighted</mark> section before submitting.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether this is announced as highlighted content, or read with no indication at all.
<sub> and <sup> position text below or above the baseline. Common real-world uses include chemical formulas and ordinal suffixes.
The chemical formula for water is H2O.
<p>The chemical formula for water is H<sub>2</sub>O.</p>The deadline is March 3rd.
<p>The deadline is March 3<sup>rd</sup>.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether the subscript/superscript positioning is conveyed in any way, or whether the text is simply read in line with no indication of its position.
<cite> marks the title of a creative work. <dfn> marks the defining instance of a term.
As explained in The Elements of Style, brevity is essential.
<p>As explained in <cite>The Elements of Style</cite>, brevity is essential.</p>Accessibility refers to the practice of making content usable by people with disabilities.
<p><dfn>Accessibility</dfn> refers to the practice of making content usable by people with disabilities.</p>Expected result: worth confirming directly, whether either is announced with any distinct role or label, or read as plain text.
<small>, <kbd>, and <var> are all visually or contextually distinct, but none carry inherent semantic weight the way <strong> or <em> do.
Terms apply. See website for full details.
<p>Terms apply. <small>See website for full details.</small></p>Press Ctrl + S to save.
<p>Press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd> to save.</p>The formula is x = y + 2.
<p>The formula is <var>x</var> = <var>y</var> + 2.</p>Expected result: no distinct announcement is expected for any of these three, they should be read as plain text. This is the deliberate control group for this page, if any of these do produce a distinct announcement, that would be a genuinely notable finding worth recording.
Verbosity settings vary significantly between screen readers, both in how many levels exist and in what each level is called. None of them use a single, universal "low/medium/high" scale, so it's worth being precise about which setting is actually active when testing:
A concrete illustration of how much a default verbosity setting can suppress: in Microsoft Word, JAWS by default announces who inserted a comment and when, but not the comment text itself, unless "Control description" is specifically enabled in JAWS's verbosity settings. The same kind of default suppression is plausible for several of the phrasing elements tested on this page, don't assume something wasn't announced because of a markup or support issue without first checking whether a verbosity setting is filtering it out.
Based on experience, JAWS and NVDA are expected to announce almost none of the phrasing elements on this page at their default settings. This is an expectation going into testing, not a confirmed result, record what's actually found against each example above, and note which verbosity level was active at the time.
Phrasing element announcement is one of the more inconsistently implemented areas across screen readers, several depend on verbosity settings the user controls, and behaviour has been known to change between versions. Rather than guess, this page states what's being tested and leaves the actual result for you to confirm and record.