Re: A question about immediate feedback

And just to follow-up to what others have said, we use aria-live regions 
to deliver our context responses (i.e., status messages). We do not use 
pop-ups to communicate anything like a status message.

Status messages are designed to deliver necessary information about 
changes without requiring a move in focus. As soon as a user moves their 
focus (learner in our case) that disrupts what they had their attention 
on. That disruption can cause big usability problems disrupts the task - 
and for our sims that means it would disrupt the connections needed for 
sensemaking and the learning.

As Adam said, explore with aria-live regions to handle messages like this.

Best,

Taliesin


On 2025-06-25 17:21, Taliesin Smith wrote:
>
> In addition to WCAG 1.4.2 Name, Role , Value (Level A) requirement, 
> there is the 1.4.3 Status Messages (Level AA) requirement.
>
> In our research on highly interactive science simulations we have 
> found that in addition to complex status messages that describe 
> surrounding contextual changes, simple confirmatory status messages 
> are also very helpful and desirable by blind learners.
>
> In our description framework, we call "Status Messages" "Context 
> Responses." They are very helpful whether simple or complex in 
> interactive contexts. I would consider adding a status message for the 
> case you are describing.
>
> If you want to read about our description design framework, you can 
> read our 2020 CHI paper, Storytelling to Sensemaking: A Systematic 
> Framework for Designing Auditory Description Display for Interactives 
> <https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3313831.3376460>. In addition, for 
> a lot more detail we have created a description design course 
> available on 
> Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/description-design-for-interactive-learning-resources 
> <description-design-for-interactive-learning-resources>
>
> Best,
>
> Taliesin
>
>
>
> On 2025-06-25 15:14, Mike Cleary wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Does a user action like a download need to be confirmed in the 
>> immediate aftermath of taking that action? or is it acceptable if the 
>> confirmation is consistently announced, albeit after a little navigation?
>>
>> We have an application where a user clicks a "Download" link on a 
>> popup form, and a second popup displays to say the download succeeded 
>> or failed. However, screen readers don't read the confirmation popup 
>> right away.
>> Browsers post their own equivalent popups about the download, which 
>> seem to compete for focus. Screen readers read the browser 
>> confirmation in Firefox, but don't manage to read those confirmations 
>> in Edge or Chrome.
>> If the download works, the focus ends up on original Download link 
>> (per SC 3.2.2). When that popup form with that link is closed, screen 
>> readers always read the popup confirmation next.
>>
>> Is it a problem that the screen reader doesn't always provide 
>> immediate feedback?  Or is WCAG 2.0 satisfied because the screen 
>> reader always eventually gets there.
>>
>> Please advise.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> *
>> *
>>
>> *
>> *
>>
>> *Mike Cleary**(Contractor) | Scrum Master*
>>
>> *Guidehouse, Inc. *
>>
>> mike.cleary@GrantSolutions.gov <mailto:email@GrantSolutions.gov>
>>
>> **
>>
>> *On Assignment With*
>>
>> *GrantSolutions*
>>
>> *Office of Grants, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial 
>> Resources (ASFR)
>> U.S. Department of Health and Human Services*
>>
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>>