Prevent screen reader from reading default markup element instructions

Question

I am improving the accessibility of my site and my screen reader (currently testing with JAWS 15) is providing default instructions for an HTML element for which I want to provide different instructions.

So far, I've been able to add aria-label="In order to foo, you need to bar" but before moving off the element, the screen reader is playing the default instructions, which are incorrect (i.e. "Press X key to do Y").

Any advice on preventing default markup element instructions from being read by screen readers?

Answer 1

If I understood your question correctly, what you're referring to is called a tutor message. For example, "Press Spacebar to activate this button".
You cannot change nor override those messages because they are a part of the screen reader itself. They are, however, most used by the beginners, and as a user gets acquainted with his/her screen reader and Windows in general, he/she will tend to turn these messages off.

Answer 2

For instructional text that is associated with a form element, you might want to use aria-label or aria-labelledby for the actually form field label and aria-describedby for instructional text.

WAI-ARIA 1.0 Authoring Practices provide a good description of what the appropriate uses are for aria-label, aria-labelledby and aria-describedby. [http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/#relations_labeling]