Imagine this. You wake up as a zombie and need to integrate back into everyday life. But it’s a tough adjustment to make, being undead, as you need to order groceries and stock up on a fresh supply of brains. However, the web is more dynamic than you remember and visual notifications that are now used to communicate updates, errors, and content changes are difficult to understand. If not impossible.

We’ll explore ARIA Live Regions through the eyes of a zombie trying to navigate the modern day web. From creating an account, ordering your favorite snacks, to sending an email, we’ll experience how screen readers understand, or sometimes don’t understand, dynamic content and live region updates. We’ll explore the rules and recommended methods for incorporating live regions to create more inclusive notifications, and ultimately, we’ll find ways to replace live regions all together with more persistent and robust patterns.

This talk bridges my passion for writing horror fiction with technical presentations. We follow our main character, a zombie named Romero, who is designed and voiced with AI, as she attempts to order brains online. We use 'zombie vision' in our screen recorded demos of using screen readers to put the audience in her shoes to personally feel the needs and impact of the accessibility of our products.

Technical Requirements:
This talk uses pre-recorded videos using screen readers. Audio support for these demos will be required.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this talk is frontend developers of all levels but best suited for intermediate to advanced as this is a technical deep dive. To a lesser degree, designers as well can benefit and connect with points within this talk.