JavaScript, DOM, & Jaws

> This isn't necessarily true anymore.  JAWS and Window-Eyes, for example,
> do pretty well with regard to javascript, and are getting better all the
> time.

I don't know about JAWS 6, you may well be right, but out of curiosity I
just made a quick test to try with my version of JAWS 5.0. The results were
interesting. If anybody would like me to send them the page I test with, you
can email me.

I made a simple page with a single paragraph, of course JAWS reads this
fine. On a mouseover, I wrote a new paragraph to the DOM. With Firefox 1.07,
JAWS (version 5 again) simply ignores the paragraph completely. With IE 6,
JAWS reads "Paragraph may not fit on the screen. Please maximize the window
and try again." Basically, writing to the DOM seems to break the page from
an accessibility perspective, but again, that's JAWS 5, which is pretty old.

However, at $1500 per license, I don't think it's possible to assume that
everybody is going to have the most current version.

Thoughts?

Colin Lieberman
IT Manager
Disability Rights Advocates
449 15th Street, Suite 303
Oakland California  94612

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Andrew Kirkpatrick
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 9:43 AM
To: Patrick H. Lauke; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: sorry! RE: Stats about JavaScript availability


> Also worth mentioning: most screen readers, as far as I know, 
> don't "see" any markup generated via javascript, but rely 
> solely on the markup that's originally sent by the server. 
> So, any DOM scripting / javascript magic may be completely 
> lost on users of JAWS and co.

Patrick,
This isn't necessarily true anymore.  JAWS and Window-Eyes, for example,
do pretty well with regard to javascript, and are getting better all the
time.

If you have a form with a select with 3 choices (yes, no, and maybe) and
when maybe is chosen a textarea appears on the screen next to the select
("if maybe, please explain"), screen reader users will be able to see
this control.  I don't have the specific data on what versions deal with
this and how, but it has been supported long enough to assume that the
information will be read (and then test to verify) rather than assume
that it won't be read (and then test to verify).

In general, screen reader off-screen models are less static all the
time.

AWK

Received on Friday, 4 November 2005 17:55:08 UTC