Re: DataTables Javascript module and accessibility

Hi Allan--

You may also want to contact the folks working on the fluid project 
(http://fluidproject.org) in Toronto. They have been very active in 
developing accessible widgets based on ARIA.

Mike

On 4/19/2011 1:55 AM, Allan Jardine wrote:
> Hi Charles,
>
> Thanks very much for the advice! I will give it a go and post back with what I can come up with, or if an implementation question arises.
>
> Regards,
> Allan
>
>
>
> On 18 Apr 2011, at 20:00, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>
>> Hi Allan
>>
>> On Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:45:45 +0400, Allan Jardine<allan.jardine@sprymedia.co.uk>  wrote:
>>
>>> I'm the author of an Javascript based HTML table "enhancing" plug-in for jQuery called DataTables ( http://datatables.net  ). I'm interested in increasing the accessibility of the module, and it's various controls using WAI-ARIA.
>> Cool :)
>>
>>> Although I am a Javascript developer and know some of the basics of accessibility, I'm not certain what should be implemented in order to make the accessibility features actually useful. I'm sure I could just stick some WAI-ARIA attributes into DataTables and call it done, but I would be worried about hindering more than helping, which isn't what I want to achieve!
>> Good instincts ;)
>>
>>> Is there a list of consultants / freelancers maintained who know ARIA well and might be open to discussing this with me to provide some guidance?
>> Not that I know of... although you can always ask direct questions here - a few people who know accessibility still hang out here.
>>
>>> More generally, are there any recommendations for how a Javascript module might be tested for accessibility once suitable attributes are added?
>> The most obvious approach is to test the results of using it against WCAG (Web Content Accesibility Guidelines) - there are plenty of people who can do that for you, and again in some cases you might find people will give stuff a quick but reasonably informed once-over here on the list.
>>
>> There is also an Evaluation and Repair Tools group within WAI, who used to work on stuff like this. You can check it out and see if they are still active (I withdrew for lack of time a good while ago) and interested. You might also want to ping the HTML5 group and point people to this discussion - there are a number of people there with serious amounts of expertise (and a couple of differeing opinions on some points...)
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Chaals
>>
>> -- 
>> Charles McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
>>     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk
>> http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com
>>
> ------------------
> Dr. Allan Jardine
> w | www.sprymedia.co.uk
> e | allan.jardine@sprymedia.co.uk
>
>
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 20 April 2011 15:09:33 UTC