Screen reader: no announcement when response is generating or complete (NVDA)
Status Fixed / completed
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 4 comments · opened Jun 22, 2026 · closed Aug 25, 2026
Part of umbrella accessibility issue: #69996
Problem
There is no signal accessible to a screen reader that Claude is still generating a response or has finished. Users must navigate manually to the bottom of the response area to check status, with no passive indication that work is ongoing.
Recommendation
- While generating: The elapsed time display should be wrapped in an ARIA live region set to
aria-live="polite", allowing NVDA to periodically announce elapsed time without interrupting speech. The elapsed time element should also carry a heading (H3 or H4 recommended) so users can navigate directly to it. - On completion: When generation finishes, an ARIA live region should be updated with a brief notice such as "Response complete." Using
aria-live="polite"ensures the announcement queues after any current speech rather than interrupting it.
Environment
- Claude Code desktop app, Windows 11
- NVDA screen reader (latest stable)
4 Comments
Found 1 possible duplicate issue:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
This is not a duplicate of https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/58428
Note that this behavior is specifically in Claude code – the standard Claude chat interface already behaves properly, automatically announcing progress as it happens.
It appears that this work has been largely completed. NVDA now announces automatically when thinking begins and ends. The periodic announcement of time elapsed is probably not desirable since it is likely to become annoying. I would consider closing this issue as fixed.