Level AA · WCAG 2.1
4.1.3 Status Messages
Status messages are announced without moving focus — “added to basket”, “3 results”, “saving failed”.
Manual only No automated check says anything useful.
How it fails in practice
A cart counter that silently increments. A form that shows “Saved” for two seconds and never tells a screen-reader user anything.
How to fix it
Put the message in a live region that exists in the DOM before the message does. Injecting the region and the text at the same moment is the usual reason nothing gets announced.
At a glance
- Level
- Level AA — the level EN 301 549 requires, and therefore the level the BFSG and the EAA are measured against.
- Principle
- Robust
- Guideline
- 4.1 Compatible
- Added in
- WCAG 2.1
- EN 301 549
- 9.4.1.3
- Automated check
- Manual only
Manual only
How far an automated check gets
Nothing automatic decides this. A scanner that reports it as passing is reporting that it did not look. It stays untested until a person tests it and records what they did — which is exactly how we treat it: as untested, not as passed.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Find out which criteria your site fails
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