Chat widget accessibility — a major step toward RGAA & WCAG compliance
The ViaSay chat widget has gone through a significant accessibility overhaul, bringing it substantially closer to RGAA and WCAG compliance. Because these fixes live in our shared component library, every ViaSay widget benefits automatically — there's nothing to update on your side.
Accessibility is increasingly a legal requirement (RGAA in France, the European Accessibility Act) — and a better experience for everyone. Here's what changed.
Built for screen reader users
The widget now speaks clearly to assistive technologies.
- Buttons, icons, and images expose proper accessible names — while purely decorative elements are correctly hidden from screen readers.
- Live status updates — connection state, CSAT confirmation — are announced automatically as they happen.
- Chat content now uses meaningful HTML structure (a heading for the header, real lists for bulleted content, paragraphs for messages), so screen readers can navigate it properly.
- Interface labels now resolve in the widget's own language, fixing cases where some controls were announced in English regardless of the configured language.
Full keyboard navigation
The entire widget can be operated without a mouse.
- Interactive controls are now real buttons — reachable and activatable from the keyboard, with a clearly visible focus outline.
- Focus is handled intelligently: it moves into the message field when the chat opens and returns to the launcher when it closes, so keyboard users never lose their place.
Clearer visual contrast
Text and UI details are easier to read. Input borders, placeholder text, and the typing indicator now meet contrast requirements.
Your widget's main color stays yours to choose — just keep enough contrast with white in the header to stay compliant.
Added — header subtitle color
A new tertiary_color option lets you set a distinct color for the header subtitle, giving the chat header a more refined, on-brand finish.