Screen Readers For Testing Website Accessibility

Question

My website is designed to meet the accessibility guidelines.

I\'m HOPING that this means screen readers should work well with them... But I have two questions:

Answer 1

Is this a fair assumption to make?

No, even if you think you know the ins and outs of accessibility well, only testing can really tell you this.

Are there any free/cheap screen readers clients I can use to test or online emulators?

The already mentioned NVDA looks like a viable option, or you can download a trial of JAWS which I believe is the most widely used screen reader on Windows. If you're really serious about accessibility and you have a requirement for ongoing testing, you might want to think about just buying a copy.

On a final note, it sounds like you already know this but no amount of automated accessibility testing can really tell you if your site is accessible, only real-world testing can do that! Which is what you're doing, so well done.