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Re: Aria live region

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Oct 7, 2022 4:54AM

Hi Geethavani,

In a situation like this, some screen reader users prefer focus to be set to the start of the search results list because you can almost guarantee that's where they want to start reading. Specifically, for focus to go to the statement of the number of results, e.g. "showing 1,832 results for xxx. When focus is set to this text, the screen reader will read it automatically (the JAWS bug preventing this is fixed) and there will be no need for a live region to announce the results statement.

I said "some screen reader users prefer", but how many is "some" is open to debate and not all screen reader users or accessibility practitioners would agree with this approach. Some would prefer, as Steve says, for the screen reader to be left to do what it naturally does. My interactions with screen reader users makes me inclined towards the "move focus" approach, but I know Steve also has a lot of insight into what users want and need, having done a lot of user testing with real users.

Also note, if there is no actual page load (e.g. you have a single page application) then you are going to have to place focus somewhere anyway. This could be top of page, results statement, or anywhere else you think is appropriate.

Mark