[Web4lib] AJAX interactivity and accessibility

[Jeremy Dunck]

On 12/21/05, Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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:
>

Thanks very much for forwarding this on.  Is it possible for me to
confer with him directly?  I'm pretty good with JS and am interested
in accessibility.  I'd like this to be a dialog.

Perhaps he'd like to influence the design of ajax toolkits?  ;-)

> They do provide the alternative. But just like text-only
> pages on web sites, alternatives are never a good option.

I'm interested in this response because it surprises me.   I'm aware
of graceful degredation or progressive enhancement or whatchamacallit,
but I've always understood that an accessible alternative is
acceptable when justified.

Or, to put it another way, sometimes AJAX simply isn't something that
can be layered on.  GMail is the best example here: the main UI is
quite compelling, but its wholly enabled by AJAX.  GMail also provides
an accessible alternate UI.

So, to sum it up, I think progressive enhancement is advisable with
practical, but alternates are an acceptable compromise when the
features afforded by an inaccessible design are compelling.

Can you see what holes he shoots in that?  I'd like to learn how to
apply progressive enhancement more widely, which is what I take
Keith's position to be.

Thanks,
  Jeremy