How good is Browser Support for the ARIA Notify API?
The new ARIA Notify API is supported by more and more browsers. So I thought: Time to do a thorough check with different screen readers on different platforms and browsers.
In case you’re unfamiliar with this API: Calling the ariaNotify() method will queue a
string of text to be announced by a screen reader. For example: When a user clicks the
“Add to Shopping Cart” button in an online shop, their screen reader should announce
a message like, e.g., “Item XY was added to shopping cart.”
Check out my article “Make Screen Readers talk with the ARIA Notify API” for more details.
Photo: © Thirdman / pexels.com
I’ll quickly explain the test setup and then present the results of my screen reader tests.
My Test Setup
I’ve reused my CodePen demo of an online shop named “The Shop” for my tests. You can add products like “Fancy Stuff” or “Useless Junk” to the shopping cart. The shopping cart will visually indicate that products were added. Screen reader users will hear a message like, e.g., “Item Fancy Stuff was added to shopping cart.”
Screen Reader Test Results
At the moment of writing this blog post, the ARIA Notify API is already supported by all major browsers on Windows and Android devices. I’ve successfully tested my demo with current versions of NVDA and TalkBack.
Here’s a detailled list of test scenarios in which the ARIA Notify API worked as expected:
- Mozilla Firefox 151.0.3, NVDA 2026.1.1, Windows 11
- Mozilla Firefox 151.0.3, TalkBack 16.0.01.0, Samsung Galaxy S24 with Android 16
- Google Chrome 149.0.7827.54, NVDA 2026.1.1, Windows 11
- Google Chrome 148.0.7778.215, TalkBack 16.0.01.0, Samsung Galaxy S24 with Android 16
- Microsoft Edge 148.0.3967.96, NVDA 2026.1.1, Windows 11
Now the bad news: Safari and iOS failed miserably. In the following test scenarios, the “Item XY was added to shopping cart” message was not announced by the screen reader:
- Apple Safari 26.5, VoiceOver, iPhone 15 with iOS 26.5
- Mozilla Firefox 151.0.3, VoiceOver, iPhone 15 with iOS 26.5
Conclusion
The major browsers on Windows and Android already support the ARIA Notify API. While the WebKit team (Safari) has expressed support in standards discussions, they have not shipped this API in Safari yet. I also couldn’t find any open bug ticket or other information on their progress.
This means: It’s too early to use the new ariaNotify() method in production code. But you
can experiment with the API and get ready to use it when cross-browser support arrives.
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