diff --git a/app/templates/components/message-count-label.html b/app/templates/components/message-count-label.html
index 23a0a3ee6..771473341 100644
--- a/app/templates/components/message-count-label.html
+++ b/app/templates/components/message-count-label.html
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
 {% macro message_count_label(count, template_type, suffix='sent') -%}
+  {% if template_type == None %}
+    {%- if count == 1 -%}
+      message
+    {%- else -%}
+      messages
+    {%- endif -%}
+  {% endif %}
   {%- if template_type == 'sms' -%}
     {%- if count == 1 -%}
       text message
diff --git a/app/templates/views/notifications.html b/app/templates/views/notifications.html
index 0f4743abf..7e09124e6 100644
--- a/app/templates/views/notifications.html
+++ b/app/templates/views/notifications.html
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@
 {% block maincolumn_content %}
 
   <h1 class="heading-large">
-    {{ message_count_label(99, message_type, suffix='') | capitalize }}
+    {% if not current_user.has_permissions('view_activity') %}<span class="visually-hidden">{% endif %}
+      {{ message_count_label(99, message_type, suffix='') | capitalize }}
+    {% if not current_user.has_permissions('view_activity') %}</span>{% endif %}
   </h1>
   {% if not message_type == "letter" %}