Announce progress with the ariaNotify API
ariaNotify lets a script hand a message straight to assistive technology, with no live region and no hidden div to write into. W3C lists it as sufficient for 4.1.3 Status Messages, and then attaches a caution that decides how you should actually use it. As of April 2026 the working group called it an experimental feature in web browsers and in assistive technology. It said to use the API only as a progressive enhancement alongside a more reliable technique, and named the live region approach in ARIA25 as the partner. That second half is the part to hold onto, because the assistive technology side is what decides whether the call is heard at all. Feature-detect, call it where it exists, and keep the live region for everywhere else.
How we find it in an audit
This shows up in code review rather than in a scan. We look for calls to the API and check whether there is a fallback path behind the feature test, then run the same journey in a browser without support to confirm the message still arrives.
How affected users experience it
Where it works, this is cleaner than a live region, because the message goes to the screen reader instead of relying on a hidden element being watched. Where it does not, and today that is most places, an unguarded call is silence. The person gets no upload progress, no save confirmation, and no reason to think anything happened at all.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
if ("ariaNotify" in document) {
document.ariaNotify("Upload 50% complete");
} else {
liveRegion.textContent = "Upload 50% complete";
}Fails
if ("ariaNotify" in document) {
document.ariaNotify("Upload 50% complete");
}
// browsers without the API get silenceOther ways to satisfy this rule
15 guides on this site are filed under 4.1.3 Status Messages. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.
- ARIA19sufficientAnnounce form errors with role=alert
- ARIA22sufficientAnnounce status messages with role=status
- ARIA23sufficientAnnounce chat and feed updates with role=log
- ARIA25sufficientAnnounce progress bar updates with a live region
- G83sufficientTell users which required fields they missed
- G84sufficientExplain when input is not an allowed value
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique ARIA27: Using ariaNotify to convey the status of a progress bar. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.