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> Update 7 Oct 2025: Some screen readers have been found not to announce updates to the tag, so explicitly emphasising the role attribute might be worthwhile fo

> Update 7 Oct 2025: Some screen readers have been found not to announce updates to the tag, so explicitly emphasising the role attribute might be worthwhile for now until support improves: <output role="status">. Waiting for support to improve on a 17 year old tag that is barely used anymore?

croes 1y ago
To improve the usage of screen readers that don’t respect a tag that’s parts of the standard for 17 years. It’s obviously the screen readers’ fault.
- wizzwizz4 1y ago
  If adding the ARIA role fixes the problem, then it's not the fault of screen readers: it's browsers not exposing the semantics properly (unless explicitly instructed to). Please don't assign blame to the "obvious" target unless you actually know who's at fault.
  - cluckindan 1y ago
    The output tag has an implicit aria-role=”status”. This is 100% on the particular screen reader(s) that don’t support it. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Reference/Roles/status_role https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/A...
    - wizzwizz4 1y ago
      If the screen reader were at fault, then explicitly specifying the implicit role (something that should be a no-op) would not fix the problem. It's the responsibility of web browsers to implement and expose implicit ARIA roles (see https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#mapping-html-to-accessibility-apis https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#mapping-html-to-accessib...). Screen readers do not (in general) speak HTML, just like computer monitors do not (in general) speak CSS.
      - cluckindan 1y ago
        If that were true, no screen readers would work, which is not the case.
        wizzwizz4 1y ago
        Have you ever used a screen reader? A lot of their failure modes are exactly as you'd expect from the model I've described: look at, for example, the differences in how definition lists are exposed to Windows Narrator between Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Edge-in-IE-mode.
        cluckindan 1y ago
        You’re right, some screen readers work better with specific browsers. The article doesn’t mention anything about that, though.
egeozcan 1y ago
If on Windows, opening tickets on NVDA repo works wonderfully well, as long as they find them valid. https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda

croes 1y ago

To improve the usage of screen readers that don’t respect a tag that’s parts of the standard for 17 years. It’s obviously the screen readers’ fault.

wizzwizz4 1y ago
If adding the ARIA role fixes the problem, then it's not the fault of screen readers: it's browsers not exposing the semantics properly (unless explicitly instructed to). Please don't assign blame to the "obvious" target unless you actually know who's at fault.
- cluckindan 1y ago
  The output tag has an implicit aria-role=”status”. This is 100% on the particular screen reader(s) that don’t support it. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Reference/Roles/status_role https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/A...
  - wizzwizz4 1y ago
    If the screen reader were at fault, then explicitly specifying the implicit role (something that should be a no-op) would not fix the problem. It's the responsibility of web browsers to implement and expose implicit ARIA roles (see https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#mapping-html-to-accessibility-apis https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#mapping-html-to-accessib...). Screen readers do not (in general) speak HTML, just like computer monitors do not (in general) speak CSS.
    - cluckindan 1y ago
      If that were true, no screen readers would work, which is not the case.
      - wizzwizz4 1y ago
        Have you ever used a screen reader? A lot of their failure modes are exactly as you'd expect from the model I've described: look at, for example, the differences in how definition lists are exposed to Windows Narrator between Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Edge-in-IE-mode.
        cluckindan 1y ago
        You’re right, some screen readers work better with specific browsers. The article doesn’t mention anything about that, though.

egeozcan 1y ago

If on Windows, opening tickets on NVDA repo works wonderfully well, as long as they find them valid. https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda