2.5 Status messages not announced by screen readers (H)

FIGURE 2.9: ‘No results found’ message highlighted on the Monitoring page

FIGURE 2.10: Drug Intolerances search field and All drugs results section highlighted on Drug Intolerances Patient Settings page

FIGURE 2.11: Drug intolerance search field highlighted on the Drug Intolerance Patient Settings page

2.5.1 WCAG 4.1.3 (AA) - Desktop

On different instances throughout the journey, the page dynamically updates to reflect changes caused by user actions. For instance, on the Monitoring page, if a user searched for a name/NHS number that doesn’t exist on the database, a message stating “No results found” appears on screen. Similarly, on the Drug Intolerances Patient Settings section, the page updates to show either no results or the name of the drug searched for, depending on whether the results exist.

However, these updates are only communicated visually and not to screen reader users.

Blind and low-vision users need to be informed of changes that happen on the screen via a screen reader since they would not be able to perceive these updates being visually presented. Failing to ensure this would cause users to be unaware of such changes. In this case, users would not know whether their search yielded any results, which could lead them to believe that there are problems with the function.

2.5.2 Recommendation

Ensure that dynamic changes are being communicated to screen reader users.

This could be achieved using aria-live regions such as aria-live='polite' or aria-live='assertive'. We recommend using aria-live='polite', which informs users of changes without interrupting their current task.

2.5.3 Spot check: December 2022

This issue is unresolved. Please refer to the recommendation above to fix the issue.

---