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Note: Comments are open below for First Puplic Working Draft: It was closed to roll it into the Draft but we want to hear from you. This is Issue #2 It adds the SC and it's related glossary terms.
SC Short Name
Change of content:
SC Text
Programmatic notification is provided for each change in content that indicates an action was taken or that conveys information, unless one or more of the following is true:
Suggested Priority Level
Level AA
Related Glossary additions or changes
Note: Usually, this is the same order as the code, and is represented as an accessibility tree.
What Principle and Guideline the SC falls within
Principle: Perceivable
Proposed new Guideline 1.5:
Notification: Make it easier for users to know about changes to dynamic content
Description (Intent)
This Success Criteria is intended to help users of assistive technology be aware of changes that many users can easily see and understand.
There are a number of cases where content changes on a page after it is loaded. Users who are blind or have low vision that rely on a screen reader may have trouble knowing that information on a page changed. They may be working on the part of the page which is not near where changes have occurred on a page. It may be on a part of the web page that they have already read and wouldn't consider reviewing that part of the page for unannounced changes.
These messages would be very short in nature, such as:
Examples of situations where this type of notification would be appropriate include:
Dynamic changes to a page sometimes cause the page to become inactive for a period of time while it is being updated. Users of assistive technology may think the page has crashed and may loose their work if they either reload the page or leave the page thinking the browser crashed. This notification will ensure they are aware that something is happening in the background, the way that sighted users are aware when they see a spinning icon or the words "loading". If there is no such visual indication there is no requirement in the Success Criterion to provide programmatic notification, only when there is a visual notification, is there a requirement to make that notification also programmatic. This is not about the initial wait to load a new page. Those are announced to screen readers.
Note: SC 4.1.2 covers notification of changes in content that are a result of a change in the state of a control, such as selecting a new Tab in a tabbed interface, opening and closing a menu, clicking a link or button that opens up a dialog or tooltip. The text of 4.1.2 is "... states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies."
Specific Benefits of Success Criterion
Users of assistive technology will know what changed on the page, and will be able to make decisions based on that information.
Benefits
Justification and Evidence
This issue is currently a best practice recommended by most WCAG evaluators, and most evaluators have come across situations where a screen reader user became confused because something changed on the page that they were unaware of. There is a long thread on the mail archives which started here: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2016AprJun/0808.html. The current wording is a result of those discussions and has good momentum from working group members on the list.
There was an issue which filed against WCAG for WCAG next. See Issue 12 here https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Post_WCAG_2_Issues_Sorted
Testability
This can be tested programmatically or functionally. In the code, identify elements that show/hide content etc, and ensure they have programming that exposes the user to notifications about this new data. Functionally, a screen reader can be run while the page is updating to determine changes to the page are announced to the user.
Related Resources
This is also in the Pearson guideline 5 http://wps.pearsoned.com/accessibility/115/29601/7577872.cw/index.html
COGA has a similar notification SC which is a little wider currently. https://rawgit.com/w3c/coga/master/extension/rapid-and-direct-feedback.html
Techniques