NVDA Screen Reader not reading Javascript Alert() Popup in Chrome

Question

I've written a javascript alert() message on a Salesforce page which appears on page load. The code simply goes along the lines of:

<script type="text/javascript">
   window.onready = function() {
   alert('message for user goes here.');
}
<script>

The message appears on page load, however, it isn't being picked up by the NVDA screen reader. It just reads "Unknown" (I can't even tab into it), which isn't very helpful.

How can you get the screen reader to focus/read a javascript alert message? Is this a bug with NVDA/Chrome?

I'm using the latest version of Chrome: 62.0.3202.94. And NVDA: 2017.4

Answer 1

This is a Chrome bug, and a known one. As Monorail has very poor search functions (at least, in my experience), I couldn't find the bug by number, but believe me, it does exist. Per this issue, alert() , confirm() and onBeforeUnload() dialogs are not read in Chrome. JAWS copes with it better than NVDA though: if you Alt+Tab and then Alt+Tab back to Chrome, you'll be getting the ability to tab around the dialog.

I confirmed this issue fixed in Chrome Canary versions 64, so try this or just wait a bit. Yesterday or today I got Chrome updated, now it is Google Chrome Version 63.0.3239.84.