DHTML Accessibility
About
DHTML, AJAX, and Web 2.0 are terms that refer to the trend towards a more interactive and flexible web experience. Changes in the state of a user's experience no longer occur only during page loads; now, both client and server-side scripting will be used to provide functionality similar to what may be expected of advanced desktop applications.
From an accessibility standpoint, these developments are a mixed blessing. A better user experience is every developer's goal, yet this technology is developing so quickly that some groups users may be left behind.
However, nothing about these technologies requires that they be inaccessible. The general excitement surrounding about these new techniques is an natural opportunity to promote good design techniques through standards, guidelines, and tool technologies. Organizations like IBM and Mozilla are at the forefront of the W3C Accessibility Initiative.
On this site, you'll find test cases for the proposed DHTML Roles and States. A new alpha version of the Mozilla/Firefox Accessibility Extension provides inspection and debugging features. Authoring guidelines and external resource links are forthcoming.
Announcements
- July 21, 2006: New extension version 1.2.1.437: added RDF role browser and merged with newest stable branch
- July 21, 2006: Added alert widget test page
- June 21, 2006: Added slider widget test page
- June 20, 2006: Added tree widget test page (thanks to mozilla.org)
- June 16, 2006: Added RDF extended widgets
- June 8, 2006: New extension version, minor updates, crashing resolved
- May 30, 2006: Added combobox widget test page
- May 26, 2006: Added textfield widget test page
- May 18, 2006: Test pages updated with more information, widgets
- May 9, 2006: DHTML Alpha Branch released
- May 9, 2006: These DHTML info pages created