- From: Hy Cohen <hy@miplet.com>
- Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 09:25:19 -0700
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
I use a screen reader with JavaScript enabled. Will <noscript> work for allowing the drop down menus to work, or must I disable JavaScript? There are other things JavaScript does which I may want to have it do which is why I have it turned on. Thanks, Hy -----Original Message----- From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Tom James Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 5:48 AM To: 'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org' Subject: RE: Javascript > Naturally in the case of DHTML menus, there is a graceful fallback in > the noscript element, so a DHTML menu can be accessible by providing > an alternative. I'm not sure it becomes accessible just by providing <noscript> alone. About 2 years ago, I wanted to do some DHTML, where additional information appeared in response to a mouseover event. I checked various options with a blind user, who used a screen reader over MSIE, but with JavaScript enabled (they worked within a corporate environment in which many of the browser options were disabled by the IT team - but that's another story!). The problem was one of focus: in order to see the additional links, the mouse had to hover over the "master" item. However, this requires you to concentrate in two places at once: the mouse is on the master link, while you read the additional information elsewhere on the screen. This is quite easy for a sighted user, because you can look at one area of the screen while the cursor is elsewhere. However, for my blind user, the screenreader read wherever the cursor was, so could only read the additional information by moving away from the "master" item - whereupon the additional info disappeared in response to the mouseout event! Essentially, a sighted user can concentrate on two areas of the screen simultaneously (the "master" item that triggers the event, and the text that appears in response), whereas with a screen reader, it was one or the other, but not both simultaneously. As I say, this was a little while ago, and maybe the state of the art in screen readers has moved on. But it goes to show that the problem can be more complex than just making sure that the scripted behaviour works when scripts are disabled and work when using device-independent events. Just my 0.02EUR Tom ============================================ Tom James Corporate e-Government Officer Salisbury District Council 3 Rollestone Street Salisbury SP1 1DX "Internet Communications are not necessarily secure, and therefore Salisbury District Council does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message. Any views or opinions presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Salisbury District Council. Anyone replying by email to the author of this message (or emailing anyone else, using the "@salisbury.gov.uk" address), is advised that such emails may be read by persons other than the intended recipient" ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________
Received on Thursday, 1 May 2003 12:25:41 UTC