Does your friend use Links (or lynx/others)? I thought most visually impaired people use a normal browser combined with a screen reader (NVDA or Voiceover).

Of course, designing with accessibility in mind is important, but I would argue supporting Links isn't.

But if your site supports Links then it’s almost definitely going to work with screen readers and vice versa.

That’s not at all true. Links doesn’t care if a text field is properly labeled and a screen reader user with a modern browser can happily use a site built using a front-end framework if the developer has taken proper steps (e.g. focus management on “page” transitions, used ARIA live regions to announce dynamic changes).