We are deploying the native Genesys Cloud Web Messaging widget. During our WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit, we discovered that the ‘File Attachment’ button within the native chat interface lacks proper focus state visibility when navigating via the keyboard (Tab key). Additionally, the screen reader does not announce when an agent is currently typing. Does the native Messenger Configuration UI provide granular CSS overrides for focus rings, and is there a configuration flag to enable ARIA live regions for the typing indicator?
Hello. I manage a deployment in Germany, and we have very strict compliance laws including accessibility. The native Messenger Configuration in the Genesys Admin interface only allows you to change the primary colors and logos.
It does not allow you to inject custom CSS for the focus rings. If you must change the focus state to pass your WCAG audit, you are required to use the Messenger JavaScript SDK to intercept the rendering and inject your own styles programmatically.
It is not possible through the graphical interface.
Hey guys, Python dev here who just had to build a custom chat widget for this exact reason! The previous answer is right about the CSS, but for the screen reader typing indicator, there is literally no setting to turn on ARIA live regions for the native widget. The native widget just shows the little three bouncing dots, which screen readers completely ignore. If you absolutely need 100% WCAG compliance with screen readers announcing ‘Agent is typing…’, you literally have to build your own headless chat widget using the Guest Chat API.
It’s a ton of work!
I inherited our entire Genesys org six months ago and I ran into this exact same accessibility nightmare. Our legal team almost blocked our go-live because of the typing indicator issue! We ended up going the headless route using the Guest API, and honestly, it was the best decision we made. We handed the API docs to our frontend React team, and they built a beautiful, fully WCAG-compliant interface in about two weeks.
Do not waste your time trying to hack the native Messenger iframe with CSS injections, it will break every time Genesys pushes an update.