Javascript and accessibility
Here’s a useful article that visitors to this site should check out: JavaScript and accessibility, written by Peter-Paul
Koch. In this article the author goes through a number of different JavaScript-related accessibility issues and offers some solutions or debunks the myths.
Regarding JavaScript and accessibility, there are two myths:
- Using any JavaScript at all means that your site is inaccessible.
- It’s impossible to build a modern site without JavaScript, so it’s just Too Bad For Accessibility.
Neither of these myths are true. As happens so often, the truth lies in the middle.
Strangely enough, while I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with the sentiment of the article mentioned above, I find myself disagreeing with another of Peter-Paul Koch’s articles featured in evolt, in which he argues that coding to web standards does not equal forward compatibility. While some of what he has to say rings true (after all, this site is coded to standards and fails dismally on a hiptop display), I think that the general rule about coding to standards increases the likelihood of forward compatibility is still true.