[Web4lib] AJAX interactivity and accessibility

[John Fereira]

At 08:46 PM 12/21/2005, Richard Wiggins wrote:
>Jeremy,
>
>I'd be glad to put you in touch with Jason -- will talk to him tomorrow.
>
>
>Michael argues that any time you make a dichotomy between the graphical
>version and the "text-only" version, inevitably the two fall out of sync.

I disagree.  If a site is designed well, the content and presentation 
will be separate.   For example,  if a site is created using XML/XSLT 
the content will be represented in XML but how it's rendered will be 
managed using an XSL file.  It can check whether it's rendering a 
version with graphics or a text-only version and transform the 
content appropriately.  It doesn't have to be XML/XSLT.  Any 
scripting language that provides a separation of data and 
presentation will work (Java Server Pages, PHP, Velocity, Tapestry, etc).

>In fact, during one demo, the text-only version of our library site lacked
>some content that the graphical site had.  In this case, incredibly ironic,
>the graphical site described a lighting renovation project in the library.
>
>
>I think the point is that the degradation should be seamless.  A user of
>JAWS or other tools should simply encounter links that work.  They should
>not have to make a choice to go to the version of the site that works for
>them.



John Fereira
jaf30 at cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY