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Editor: Announce publish date changes to screen readers #81629

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jorgefilipecosta merged 2 commits into from
Aug 20, 2026
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Editor: Announce publish date changes to screen readers #81629

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Editor: Announce publish date changes to screen readers.
jorgefilipecosta Aug 14, 2026
68fbb8e
Add changelog entry.
jorgefilipecosta Aug 14, 2026
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions packages/editor/CHANGELOG.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
- Header: Allow the Back button column to grow when "Show button text labels" is enabled so the label is not obscured by the following controls ([#81701](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/81701)).
- Notes: Stop forcing capitalization of the user name in a note byline, so the name is shown as the user set it ([#81788](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/81788)).
- Device Preview: Center the editor canvas with the canvas container's own flex alignment rather than the canvas's auto margins, which were conditional on the resize handles being active. Switching from the mobile or tablet preview back to desktop no longer expands the canvas from the left edge ([#81484](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/81484)).
- `PostSchedule`: Announce the new publish date to screen readers when the date is changed ([#81629](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/81629)).

### Internal

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18 changes: 16 additions & 2 deletions packages/editor/src/components/post-schedule/index.js
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@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
import { parseISO, endOfMonth, startOfMonth } from 'date-fns';
import { speak } from '@wordpress/a11y';
import { getSettings } from '@wordpress/date';
import { _x } from '@wordpress/i18n';
import { __, _x, sprintf } from '@wordpress/i18n';
import { useDispatch, useSelect } from '@wordpress/data';
import { privateApis as blockEditorPrivateApis } from '@wordpress/block-editor';
import { useState, useMemo } from '@wordpress/element';
import { store as coreStore } from '@wordpress/core-data';
import { store as editorStore } from '../../store';
import { getFullPostScheduleLabel } from './label';
import { unlock } from '../../lock-unlock';

const { PrivatePublishDateTimePicker } = unlock( blockEditorPrivateApis );
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -42,7 +44,19 @@ export function PrivatePostSchedule( {
);

const { editPost } = useDispatch( editorStore );
const onUpdateDate = ( date ) => editPost( { date } );
const onUpdateDate = ( date ) => {
editPost( { date } );
speak(
date
? sprintf(
// translators: %s: The new publish date and time, e.g. "June 3, 2025 12:00 pm UTC+0".
__( 'Publish date set to %s.' ),
getFullPostScheduleLabel( date )
)
: __( 'Publish date set to now.' ),
'assertive'

@t-hamano t-hamano Aug 14, 2026

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What is the reason for using "assertive" instead of the default "polite"?

@Mamaduka Mamaduka Aug 14, 2026

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I think direct actions are announced with "assertive" - "block inserter", "link removed", etc. Those all use assertive.

It would be nice to have a brief guideline on which politeness level to use in each case. Recently, I swapped "assertive" for "polite" to announce category filtering results (#81422), which seems to be the pattern in the project, but now I see more places using "assertive".

@joedolson, is this something we can document in guidelines?

@joedolson joedolson Aug 14, 2026

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We should definitely try and identify guidelines. It's all about immediacy: a polite announcement will be deferred until after other speaking has completed, and an assertive announcement will be announced immediately, interrupting other announcements. The complicating factor is that the length of other ongoing announcements is going to be a mitigating factor. For example, if the active element has a lengthy aria-describedby target, and a polite announcement, that announcement will be quite a while later - and may never be announced, if the user interrupts speaking before it happens.

I'll chat with the rest of the team and try and set some guidelines that we can attempt to apply generally, so that we have some consistency.

@Mamaduka Mamaduka Aug 14, 2026

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Thank you, @joedolson!

@jorgefilipecosta jorgefilipecosta Aug 20, 2026

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Hi all, thank you for the discussion.
"Assertive" was chosen because this is a confirmation of a direct user action, which seems to be the existing pattern in the project, as @Mamaduka noted e.g., "Link removed." / "Link inserted." in the link UI, "%s applied." / "%s removed." when toggling formats, and the added/removed messages in FormTokenField. "Polite" seems to be reserved for background or asynchronous updates, e.g., "Media upload started" / "Media upload complete", or result counts after filtering.
I think we can go with assertive but I am happy to change after if it does not matches the guidelines.

);
};

const [ previewedMonth, setPreviewedMonth ] = useState(
startOfMonth( new Date( postDate ) )
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