ajax and accessibility

Question

1) How important is it for the site to be accessible without javascript? I'm using a lot of ajax. I converted most of the site to be accessible without js, but the effort involved left me wondering if it was worth it.

2) What are the sort of scenarios (that occur fairly often) in which javascript might be turned off? (apart from people being paranoid and turning off js)

I'm developing the website that caters exclusively to the students in my university.I know that most (99%) of the users of the site will access it through a normal web-browser (no screen readers, or mobiles etc.)

I see that even large sites like digg, reddit simply stop working when I turn off js, without any attempt to provide html only access. Even in SO, it isn't possible to vote or view comments without javascript (though there are some nice error messages shown)

Edit: SEO is not a major concern, since it a very niche website, and marketing is done by other means. And right now, it has been indexed and is the first result when searching for the site name.

Answer 1

The most common non-accessible non-paranoid reason why JS would be disabled is when search engine bots come to index the content. You need to be able to handle that if you want to be listed properly on search engines.

EDIT for your edit: Fair enough. It really depends on your site's features. If it's a primarily informational site, then requiring JS is absurd. If it's more of a web application, then not requiring makes it much harder to use. Make the informational parts (if any) as accessible as possible, and do what you want with the rest.

Answer 2

blackberrys and other portable web browsers often have javascript off by default

Answer 3

I asked a very related question here. Eventhough I say there that the main aim was not accessibility but ease of use, it might be an interesting read for you. I was one of the developers for my university websites and our lead was of the opinion that all websites in domains like education, non-profit organizations, govt organizations etc should be 100% accessible. Ideally you would want the pages to "work" without your CSS and client side code (JS/VBScript). We analyzed our pages using this and/or this to check our sites for accessibility.

Answer 4

The Importance of Being Accessible

It may be very important for your website to be highly accessible, especially if the site is being built for an organization which is subsidized by federal dollars.

The Rehabilitation Act was ammended in 1998, and now requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities.

There are similar laws applying to e-commerce sites, applying to the online storefronts of traditional retailers.

You can look into Secion 508 for more info, but the main idea is that partial page refreshes won't be read by modern screen readers, and if your site needs to be accessible, the extra effort is required, and certainly worth your effort.

Many web frameworks are still in use which did not anticipate ajax, and it can require a lot of work-arounds to make things accessible. Still, it's really the best thing to do, even if you are developing a private website.

Here are a couple of other articles which deal with the topic:

• Secion 508
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/saveaccessibility/
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/politics/

Users without javascript

As far as "turning off" javascript, users don't do this anywhere nearly as often as they did 5 years ago, though some still may. This will not likely be the case with your audience, and it's generally not considered the major concern it once was.

These days, the real concern is just client support. All modern browsers support enough javascript to allow you to do your work. It's the alternative clients, like the accessibility devices you mentioned, which may add requirements to your design.

If some of your audience works in a security-sensitive environment (government agencies, etc.), it may still be mandated that javascript is turned off on their work machines. This is also becoming less and less of a problem as time goes on, though it's a more common case than the paranoia issue you mentioned.

Of course, if you offer some support for those users, you won't have to worry about it.

Answer 5

It sounds like your site is going to be used in an educational environment; many countries have laws regarding the accessibility of sites in education. Beyond this, search engines and mobile browsers, as well as screen readers, will benefit from a standards compliant website.

That's not to say you can't use Javascript, just that you should be careful. In an ideal world you should be using XHTML for your content, CSS for your style, and Javascript for your behavior. On the latter point see these two Wikipedia articles:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Enhancement
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtrusive_JavaScript

Answer 6

It depends on your website.

If you are developing a web application intended for desktop users only, lots of Javascript is probably ok. Otherwise, strongly consider making your site accessible to mobile users, impaired users, or simply paranoid users who turn Javascript off. One of the best strategies to follow is that of graceful degradation, in which users without Javascript can still interact with your site, just without the flashy features.