"Accessibility, though in a sense is trivially easy once you know it"
That would not even be true if it was possible to 'know it', which it isn't. Accessibility isn't just a bunch of facts that you have to learn, and it's not just about compliance with the WCAG checkpoints. That's a good starting point but it only tells you if a website *should* be accessible. To assess whether a website *actually is* accessible you need to understand how people will perceive and interact with the content. That requires understanding of user agents, hardware platforms, assistive technologies and all kinds of disabilities. It also requires the ability to balance the conflicting needs of different stakeholders. It requires us to keep learning and reassessing our viewpoints as all these factors change and new technologies and design techniques emerge. Maybe it is trivial when you know all that, but I don't think any of us know enough to start thinking that way. Steve -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Breton Slivka Sent: 24 February 2008 04:03 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] re: generate data I don't really feel like participating in the dramatic part of this- But I can answer some of the questions about javascript. On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:53 PM, dwain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > i'm more of a designer than a developer. my knowledge of javascript > is limited. i am currently reading: javascript, the definitive guide > by david flanagan. help me out here please, if i'm off base or need > more information. > > i understand that javascript is a programming language. correct > i understand that javascript is needed to pass information from a form > to a data base for storage or retrieval of data. Incorrect- Javascript is absolutely not needed for this. In fact, I would actively discourage this usage, because it makes forms inaccessable to clients without javascript. (Even though I do quite like javascript most of the time) > i also understand there are more uses for javascript than my above > remark, but, again, my limited understanding of javascript draws a > blank for other uses. Javascript is basically a tool to allow website authors to add browser features that are not built in to the browser. That's how I see it anyway. That's not exactly how most people use it, or think of it. > i don't understand why someone would code a page and use javascript > that would make the page not available without it. It's not strictly the usage of javascript that makes the page inaccessable, it's the page's dependance on it. If you think of javascript like I do- A tool for adding features- then the page still needs to be able to work without those features. The reasons for someone making a page that doesn't work without javascript are complicated, but it basically boils down to how the author thinks about what a webpage is, and how it works. I've spoken to the author for instance, of www.eventliving.com. That website does not work at all without javascript- And there's really no reason that it can't. The issue is that the guy who programmed it had a background in Java application development- Not web development. He seemed to think of a website as a specialized kind of program. He didn't seem to know, for instance that the distinction between clientside javascript, and serverside java code was important. The goal was simply to get the website to work in IE, just like with any other program, the goal might be to simply get it to work in windows. There was no awareness of accessibility issues. But that's just one case. Someone might alternatively be perfectly aware of accessibility issues, and there are other reasons for depending on javascript. Accessibility, though in a sense is trivially easy once you know it, is percieved by a lot of people as being quite difficult. Application responsiveness might be a top priority, and the author simply sees no reason to make the site work without javascript. > would someone like to point me to some references on how to use > javascript in a standards compliant way and have a go at the above question? hijax http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/schedule/paper/29 > > dwain > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
