Are javascript disabled users (which are very low in the world) is a topic of accessibility?

Question

Are javascript disabled users (which are very low in the world) is a topic of accessibility? To make accessible everythig without javascript is more time consuming then to make site compatible for IE6. My question is actually how many people keeps javascript diabled in browser , and if it's very low percentage in the work then why we need to make site compatible without javascript. What WCAG 2.0 says about this?

I want to know other opinions on this issue.

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With WCAG 2, “Don’t use x” is no longer valid. (Was it ever?) It is now up to you, the developer, to work on the direct accessibility of your content, no matter what technology you choose. I believe we’re about to experience a new wave of accessible design techniques, as a result.

Answer 1

The biggest problem with javascript is that if you manipulate the dom the user might not be aware that anything has happened. In general use progressive enhancement to keep everyone happy.

Don't decide not to use things like AJAX though, for the small number of people who have difficulties with it you'll make your site harder (to the point of being unusable) for the much larger number of people with cognitive difficulties. The key is to make it work for everyone (including robots) not break it for one group in order to get it working for a different group.

Answer 2

Noscript is worth mentioning here as something that can selectively block Javascript so there can be some advanced users that block scripts. Cross-site Scripting may cause more people to have add-ons like Noscript so it isn't as isolated as it used to be.

Answer 3

The use of javascript does not make a site inaccessible to screen readers depending on how it's used. Stackoverflow is accessible even though it uses javascript, when I up or down vote a question I'm not notifyed that the score of the question has changed, but if I reread the question I can tell the score has changed. Things that would make a site inaccessible to screen readers while using javascript would include drawing on the canvas element, requiring certain areas of a graphic to be clicked in order to acomplish a task, creating charts with no text descriptions, etc.