Issue

In Pega Platform™ Constellation UI, screen readers (such as JAWS) do not announce the "No results" message when a data table returns an empty result set. The "No results" text may be visually present on screen, but assistive technologies receive no notification of it. Keyboard navigation to the empty-state row also fails. 

Symptoms and Impact 

Pega Platform fails to announce or place focus on empty result tables, leaving users unaware of the absence of data. 

This affects users who depend on assistive technology to interact with Pega applications and creates a compliance gap with WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). Organizations subject to Section 508 or similar accessibility mandates may be directly impacted.

Steps to reproduce 

1. Log in to a Pega Platform application built on Constellation UI. 
2. Navigate to any view that contains a data table expected to return no results. For example: Configuration Portal → Manage Knowledge Articles → a table with no configured entries. 
3. The issue also reproduces when an empty-result table appears inside a modal dialog. 
4. With a screen reader active (e.g., JAWS), observe the table area. 
   • Expected: The screen reader announces "No results" or equivalent empty-state text. 
   • Actual: No announcement is made. The empty-state text is rendered visually but is inaccessible to the screen reader. 
5. Attempt keyboard navigation within the empty table using arrow keys or modifier combinations (Shift, Alt, Ctrl + Up/Down Arrow). 
   • Expected: Focus moves to the "No results" row. 
   • Actual: Navigation to the row is not possible. 

Root Cause

The "No results" empty-state message in Constellation UI data tables lacks the required ARIA live region markup and proper role/name attributes. Without these, assistive technologies are not triggered to announce the state change. This is a platform-level deficiency in the Constellation table rendering layer; it cannot be resolved through client-side configuration or CSS. 

Solution

This issue is planned to be addressed in a future Pega Platform release.  

Issues are prioritized based on impact, severity, and capacity. The specific release for the fix has not yet been determined.  This section will be updated with release details when the fix for this issue is available.  

The fix adds proper ARIA live region announcements and corrects focus management for empty-state table rows, bringing behavior into conformance with WCAG 2.0 SC 4.1.2. 

References 

Accessibility Statement 

WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 4.1.2 — Name, Role, Value