Using alt text & focus order

Hi Nate and welcome to the community!

It's great that you're not just building accessible features into your courses, but you're also testing them to make sure they're functioning properly.

I'm wondering if this might be the article you were looking for, as it does mention how keyboard navigation doesn't work the same for screen reader users and keyboard-only users?

Regardless, if you're looking for a way to test the screen reader user experience without having to commit to buying JAWS, there is a free screen reader caller NVDA that's an alternative many people use. And we've got a useful article called 9 Basic Screen Reader Commands to Know When Testing Your E-Learning Courses that can show you the main keyboard commands you'll want to use with it while testing.