[Web4lib] AJAX interactivity and accessibility

[Richard Wiggins]

Following up on the recent thread, I asked a colleague who is very devoted
to Web accessibility to take a look at the U-W people search example.  Here
is his analysis:

 This use of AJAX is very cool and very easy to do. The way the University
of Wisconsin has it setup does have some accessibility implications. In
order to use Wisconsin's primary people search you have to have javascript
capabilities.  They do provide the alternative. But just like text-only
pages on web sites, alternatives are never a good option.


The better way to use AJAX is as a layer on top of the functionality.  The
AJAX gives some whiz/bang interactivity but when JavaScript gets turned off
the functionality should still work.  A good example of this is Google
Suggest [1].If you have JavaScript enabled, you get the cool suggest feature
of the search.  If JavaScript is turned off, the functionality works the
same way as any other Google Search.   It degrades gracefully.


Jeremy Keith is a renowned web developer and author.  He dubbed the concept
of using HIJAX instead of AJAX, so that web applications are both usable and
accessible. [2]


[1] http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
[2] http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/11/ajax_training_workshop/




Sincerely,
Justin Thorp