Reasons for not using <noscript> (was: Google Adsense ... not accessible)

Jim Ley wrote:

> Unfortunately many checkers assume that because there's a <script>
> element in the source that there has to be a <noscript> element, this
> is completely at variance to reality, indeed noscript is more likely
> an indication of in-accessibility, as it means the author hasn't
> considered that their script might fail.

I only add scripting to a page that is already fully useable.  The
scripts add enhanced, but non-essential functionality to a page.  I add
script to pages through scripting - the script and any associated
comments/documentation are added using document.write.

This degrades cleanly - if scripting is not available, the user is not
troubled (or confused) by references to something that is of no use to
them.  In my opinion, <noscript> is redundant in this context.  (To go a
step further, I have seen <noscript> advising that scripting should be
turned on or that that the user should obtain an alternative user agent
- ouch!)

So, to go back to Jim's point, I don't believe that poor accessibility
may be inferred by the lack of a <noscript> element in a document that
uses scripting.

-- 
Matthew Smith
IT Consultancy & Web Application Development
http://www.kbc.net.au

Received on Monday, 30 January 2006 05:47:20 UTC