Overview of Status Messages

Purpose

Extends the existing 3.3.1: Error Identification, 3.3.3: Error Suggestion & 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value WCAG 2.0 requirements to include confirmation messages. Progress notifications could be reported under 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value, error notifications by 3.3.1: Error Identification & 3.3.3: Error Suggestion – so it’s really when a page updates with a confirmation message that isn’t announced that WCAG 2.1 covering by adding this success criterion. This specifically benefits screen reader users and some individuals with cognitive disabilities that use assistive technologies to help them manage notifications.

How to Test

Manual testing with a screen reader is the best way to find if Status updates or confirmation messages are not announced by screenreader

Best Practices

role="status" allows notifications to be announced without changing the users focus

While it’s important to provide all individuals status messages, be careful about how “Chatty” your website or application is being. User testing can often help tell you if the nonfictions are distractive or additive.

Exceptions

The list of results obtained from a search are not considered a status update themselves and thus are not covered by this Success Criterion. A status message is a defined term in WCAG. There are two main criteria that determine whether something meets the definition of a status message:

  1. The message provides information to the user on the success or results of an action, on the waiting state of an application, on the progress of a process, or on the existence of errors;
  2. The message is not delivered via a change in context.

A message a the top of a search results page that announces the number of search results shown would be a status message.

References

Understanding Success Criterion 4.1.3: Status Messages

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