naphOct 11, 2025
Den Odell

I recently discovered the HTML tag almost nobody uses.

The <output> tag announces dynamic content to screen readers. Like an ARIA live region, except it's built in.

We've spent years hacking divs when the answer was in the spec. Classic.

New post:
https://denodell.com/blog/html-best-kept-secret-output-tag?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=output_tag_post

HTML’s Best Kept Secret: The output Tag

Make your dynamic content accessible by default with the HTML tag that time forgot.

Den Odell
Oct 2, 2025 at 11:08amWeb
Show threadSteve FrenzelOct 11, 2025

@denodell thanks for sharing, I wasn't aware this existed!

Would be cool to know how it behaves with different screen reader and browser combinations.

Do you plan of adding an example for testing purposes to your article? 🙂

Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@stvfrnzl Hey there. Thanks so much for reading. The amazing @hrbrmstr created an example page on his "Daily Drop" yesterday: https://dailydrop.hrbrmstr.dev/2025/10/10/drop-715-2025-10-10-web-slinging-friday/
I've also linked to it at the bottom of the blog post too. Hope it helps!
Show threadSteve FrenzelOct 12, 2025
@denodell @hrbrmstr awesome, thank you!
Show threadscyOct 11, 2025
@denodell The "AI" header image is suuuuch a turn-off though :( I can't focus on the text because all I'm thinking about is why that calculator can't to subtraction.
Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@scy Ha I know, but you don’t know how many hours went in to just making it look “that good”. You should have seen the earlier attempts. Sadly my graphics skills aren’t all that so I needed some assistance. I’ll give it another go later today, see if I can replace it
Show thread~nOct 11, 2025

@scy @denodell +1

Interesting and important post, but I can’t bring myself to retooting it with that image as a teaser. Worst of all: the image contributes nothing to the post. Why should a calculator display an html tag? This makes no sense. Not even figuratively.

Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@nblr @scy I've had a lot of complaints about the image today :) So I've replaced it now with just a LCD screen. My original idea was that because the <output> tag shows the results of a calculation (including in actual calculator web apps) that it was "clever", but I now see I messed it up! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@scy Yeah I'm sorry about that. I've replaced the image now with a non-calculator specific LCD screen, to reflect that old-school it's-been-in-the-spec-17-years vibe!
Show threadSamuel PlumppuOct 11, 2025

@denodell Great article, thanks for sharing! :)

I found a bug with tour RSS feed: HTML elements in post titles are not rendered correctly in RSS readers unless the `<` and `>` characters are escaped or converted into HTML entities `&lt;` and `&gt;`

Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@Greenheart Thank you so much for reading and pointing that out regarding the RSS feed, I’ll get that fixed today 🙏
Show threadDen OdellOct 11, 2025
@Greenheart I've fixed this now. Thanks again for flagging it!