Re: Dynamically Updating Web Pages (AJAX Experiments)
- From: "Octavian Rasnita" <orasnita@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:27:25 +0300
I think that the blind web developers shouldn't use a new technology which is
not used by the majority of web developers, but use the same tools, and fight
and lobby to make them more accessible for the blind.
The term "web 2.0" is not appropriate, because web 2.0 doesn't have anything to
do with the technology.
A site could be "web 2.0" even if it doesn't use Ajax, XMLHTTPRequest or
Javascript at all, but not any site that uses these is automaticly a web 2.0
site.
The blind users usually have problems with the sites that use AJAX and with the
sites that use different widgets created by Javascript, which are accessible
only visually, or are accessible hardly from the keyboard.
The most used Javascript libraries that should be focused are:
Prototype
Scriptaculous
DOJO
JQuery
YUI
ExtJS
MochiKit
Some of them pretend that try to follow ARIA, but for the moment this is not
very important for the most blind computer users that use Internet Explorer and
Jaws.
I use Internet Explorer 6 and Jaws 6 because newer versions of Jaws are not ok.
I have made some Javascript widgets that use AJAX using Scriptaculous, which
uses Prototype and they seem to be pretty accessible.
For example, I've created a textfield, I typed some letters in it, and below
the textfield it appeared a list of possible options that matches the text
entered in the textfield.
That list of options updates dynamicly based on what I type, and the page shown
the list without needing to press Insert+Escape in order to refresh the screen.
I have also made links that if are pressed, make an AJAX request to the server,
get some data and display it in the same page, using Scriptaculous. The new
displayed text was detected by Jaws with no issues without needing to refresh
the screen.
If I remember well, after clicking a Javascript generated link for sorting a
table, a link that was created using MochiKit, the table was sorted fine, and
the change was detected by Jaws without refreshing the screen. But that link
wasn't a link, but just a char appended at the end of the table column headers.
The problem in that case is that if a blind computer user doesn't know what a
char like "^" mean if it is at the end of a table column title, he won't try to
hit enter on that column, because he won't know that he can sort that table.
I have also tried to create accessible tree views and menus using more of these
Javascript libs, but none of them create a blind-friendly menu.
Some of them could use AJAX to get the content of some menus dynamicly and some
of them cannot do that, but none of them can create really friendly menus, and
the menus and tree views created by .net is one of the worst.
The Javascript libs can do very many things, but it would be pretty hard to try
to make absolutely everything accessible from the start, so I think that the
best thing would be to make accessible the most important and used things like:
- menus and tree views that use AJAX or not
- Check boxes created with Javascript, that show if they are checked or not
checked (or partially checked if possible).
- Make an AJAX request, get some data, and display it on the page, and the
screen reader should see it without refreshing the screen, when clicking on a
link, or when clicking on a common text that's not a link;
- Type a text in a field that makes an AJAX request and display the results in
the page in a list. That list should appear without refreshing the screen and
if the user clicks on a list item, it should appear in the text field, without
refreshing the screen;
- If a user clicks on a text on the page which is specially made, it should
appear a form field which could be used for updating that text on the page and
on the server. Of course, the changes on the page should appear without
refreshing.
- After a selection in a combo box, the script should do an AJAX request and
update another combo box with a list of options, based on the option selected
in the first combo box.
Others may add a few more widgets/operations that should be made accessible
which were found that have accessibility issues....
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darren Lunn" <darren.lunn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 3:55 PM
Subject: Dynamically Updating Web Pages (AJAX Experiments)
Hello all,
We are currently undertaking accessibility research with the Human
Centred Web Lab (HCW) in the School of Computer Science at the
University of Manchester. We are currently looking into the use of
Web 2.0 technologies and their affects on Assistive technologies,
both in general use and as a method of improving Web page
accessibility. To gain more of an insight into this, we have devised
two small studies that we would like people to participate in.
The first study is to gain an understanding of how current screen
reader (and browser) technologies cope with dynamic changes to
pages. We have developed a set of test pages, and what we would
like people to do is explore them, using your normal screen reader
and browser, then tell us what happens. There is a more detailed
introduction and instructions at <http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/
research/saswat/experiments/atreview.html>.
The second study is to see if inserting ARIA statements into Web
pages can aid in the navigation of the pages. We are looking for
people who use Windows Eyes or Firevox in conjunction with Firefox
and would be willing to take part in a small study in July. Ideally
we would like to have 12 participants and are willing to offer a
bursary of a £10 iTunes voucher (approximately $20 USD) for anybody
willing to take part. The study will take no longer than an hour and
there will be no need to travel as the study will be conducted
remotely. Anybody who is interested in taking part in this study or
would like further information, please contact us directly at <hcw-
studies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.
I'd like to emphasise that any feedback at all will be useful to us
and if any person has had experience of using ARIA or Web 2.0 in
general then please feel free to send us comments. If you are
interested in participating in any of these studies, or have comments
and feedback, then please contact us at <hcw-
studies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.
Many thanks
Darren
===============================
University of Manchester (UK)
Human Centred Web Lab
<http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk>
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