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Thread: Multiple live regions

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Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)

From: ses@v2a.dk
Date: Mon, Aug 31 2015 2:35AM
Subject: Multiple live regions
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Hi, all,
There seems to be a problem in several browser/screen reader combinations when several live regions exist on the same page and they are triggered at the same time. Wouldn't the expected behavior be to queue up the announcements - especially if set to polite?

All comments welcome,
Thanks in advance,

Best regards,
Stein Erik Skotkjerra

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Aug 31 2015 4:20AM
Subject: Re: Multiple live regions
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Hi
It is left up to the screen reader/browser how to handle this senario.
There is no order of precedence I believe. The ARIA User Agent
Implementation guide http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-implementation/
does not specifically
lay out the processing rules for this scenario.

I would be a little worried about a webpage that triggers multiple
live regions simultaneously. Would it be possible to change the design
to minimize that?



On 8/31/15, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi, all,
> There seems to be a problem in several browser/screen reader combinations
> when several live regions exist on the same page and they are triggered at
> the same time. Wouldn't the expected behavior be to queue up the
> announcements - especially if set to polite?
>
> All comments welcome,
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Best regards,
> Stein Erik Skotkjerra
> > > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.

From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Mon, Aug 31 2015 7:37AM
Subject: Re: Multiple live regions
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I echo Birkir's views.
Even sighted users may get confused if 3 different messages popup /
get updated simultaneously in different parts of the page ... They
need to be aggregated into one coherent message.
Why is one event triggering updates to different messages
simultaneously? Poor design perhaps?
Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang


On 8/31/15, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi
> It is left up to the screen reader/browser how to handle this senario.
> There is no order of precedence I believe. The ARIA User Agent
> Implementation guide http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-implementation/
> does not specifically
> lay out the processing rules for this scenario.
>
> I would be a little worried about a webpage that triggers multiple
> live regions simultaneously. Would it be possible to change the design
> to minimize that?
>
>
>
> On 8/31/15, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Hi, all,
>> There seems to be a problem in several browser/screen reader combinations
>> when several live regions exist on the same page and they are triggered at
>> the same time. Wouldn't the expected behavior be to queue up the
>> announcements - especially if set to polite?
>>
>> All comments welcome,
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Stein Erik Skotkjerra
>> >> >> >> >>
>
>
> --
> Work hard. Have fun. Make history.
> > > > >

From: Léonie Watson
Date: Mon, Aug 31 2015 9:57AM
Subject: Re: Multiple live regions
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> From: WebAIM-Forum On Behalf Of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Sent: 31 August 2015 09:36
> There seems to be a problem in several browser/screen reader combinations
> when several live regions exist on the same page and they are triggered at
> the same time. Wouldn't the expected behavior be to queue up the
> announcements - especially if set to polite?

The purpose of a live region is for the screen reader to wait a limited amount of time before announcing the update. If the region is set to polite, the screen reader pauses slightly before making the announcement. If set to assertive, the screen reader doesn't pause at all before making the announcement.

With multiple live regions the screen reader will start to announce the first, interrupt itself to announce the second, and so forth. Even if all live regions are timed to update simultaneously, there will be a queue as the screen reader tries to process each one as it should.

As Birkir mentioned, the notion of multiple live regions on the same page - especially ones that update simultaneously, is emphatically not a good user experience. The effect would be akin to someone standing next to you, waving their hands in front of your face, and shouting in your ear as you were trying to read what was on the page!

Léonie.

--
Senior accessibility engineer @PacielloGroup @LeonieWatson



>
> All comments welcome,
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Best regards,
> Stein Erik Skotkjerra
> > > http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>