Staging Review finding: Success message not announced to screen reader users

Value Proposition

As a veteran who uses a screen reader to navigate CST, I want my screen reader to read the success message when I successfully submit a waiver, so that I know my action was completed successfully.

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Product Information

Team: Benefits Management Tools Product: Claim Status Tool Feature: Improved 5103 requests and waiver experience

Findings details

VA.gov Experience Standard - issue: User encounters content that doesn't match other content on VA.gov. VA.gov Experience Standard - category: Consistency Launch-blocking: No Design System review: No Collab Cycle Reviewer: @briandeconinck (Accessibility)

Description

From the 5103 Evidence Notice page when you submit your evidence waiver, you're taken back to the Status page with a success alert at the top of the page. However, that message is not immediately announced to screen reader users when it appears.

Screen reader users should be able to recognize from the breadcrumbs that are announced that they've moved to a new page. But they won't immediately know if what they did worked without having to explore the page.

Link, screenshot or steps to recreate

Steps to reproduce: 1. Log in with test user Kyle Cole. 2. Turn on a screen reader (easiest for testing: VoiceOver on Mac or NVDA on Windows). 3. Tab to the checkbox and check it. 4. Tab to "Submit evidence waiver" button. 5. Press [enter]. 6. Observe that the breadcrumbs are the announced but no status update about the submission is announced.

Recommended action

If possible, send focus to the success alert.

References

Accessibility Defect Severity: 3: Medium. Should be fixed in 1-3 sprints post-launch.
WCAG Success Criteria: N/A
Modality: Screen reader
Design System Component: N/A
Design System Pattern or Template: N/A
Design System Foundation: N/A
Content Style Guide: N/A
Context: N/A

Next Steps for the VFS Team

[ ] Questions? For the most timely response, comment on Slack in your team channel tagging @platform-governance-team-members with any questions or to get help validating the issue.
[ ] Ticket ownership: If you believe that this issue is out of scope, not your team's responsibility, or a Design System issue, comment and tag @platform-governance-team-members on your team channel in Slack to provide an explanation and who you believe is responsible. The Governance team will follow up.
[ ] Close this ticket when the issue has been resolved or validated by your Product Owner.

Acceptance Criteria

[ ] Behind 5103 feature flag
[ ] Users using a screen reader can hear the success message after submitting a 5103 waiver
[ ] The focus goes to the success alert heading instead of to the breadcrumbs on the page

department-of-veterans-affairs / va.gov-team