10 ACCESSIBLE JAVASCRIPT

by Christian Heilmann

It is a common myth that JavaScript and accessibility don't go well together. This bad reputation is largely due to the very obtrusive manner in which JavaScript is generally applied, and not the fault of the language. JavaScript is a tool—a means to achieve a goal. If you use a knife as a tool, you could slice bread with it or cause bodily harm. It is not the knife that determines how it is used.

Accessible JavaScript is a misnomer, as we cannot expect all user agents to support JavaScript—from a usability perspective, not from a guideline point of view. Modern user agents are expected to support scripting, and the upcoming Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 will have a concept of ...

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