Step 1: Understand your goals
Status messages - Screen readers announce any content changes that happen based on user input.
Content change accessibility resources
Provide notification of dynamic changes to content on harvard.edu
Step 2: Watch the video
Your site or app may have content that updates or responds to user actions. Common examples include search results, filters, error messages, and mouse-over text.
People who use screen readers need to get this content, too. They need to know what change happened and what the new content is.
We’ll show you how to inspect the code of dynamically updated content. You’ll also learn to listen to the page with a screen reader. That way, you can ensure your site’s dynamic content is accessible.
Step 3: Practice your new skill
Advanced test
Check each page to see if any content on the page changes when you click a button or link or choose options in a filter. For example, you click a menu button and new content loads on a section of the same page. Another example is clicking in a form field and instructions pop up in a modal window. If this occurs, turn on the NVDA screen reader and repeat the action. Listen to hear if the screen reader announces that new content has loaded.