Comments on: More screen reader tests

By: Mark Priestap

Mark Priestap — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 12:34:41 +0000

Wow, thanks for doing all this great work! Unfortunately I’m more discouraged than ever. lol.

By: vdebolt

vdebolt — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 16:12:10 +0000

I’m really interested in whether some of the new technologies for voice, such as Mac OS X Tiger VoiceOver or the Opera 8 voice tools change the rules that say accessible sites must work with JavaScript turned off. Are all or most screen readers still unable to work with JavaScript?

By: Charles Belov

Charles Belov — Mon, 09 May 2005 21:08:55 +0000

The rule that sites must work when JavaScript is turned off does not necessarily relate to screen readers. It allows for the fact that someone may have turned JavaScript off for any accessibility or other reason. Also, the Lynx text-only browser does not support JavaScript.

By: Charles Belov

Charles Belov — Mon, 09 May 2005 21:12:20 +0000

Also, it allows for the fact that browsers may not consistently support JavaScript. I received a report that the Blazer 3.0 browser, used on certain cell phones, does not properly support the JavaScript on one of our pages. Someone who surfs on a cell phone may not be able to choose another browser, and do you really want to test your JavaScript on all the different cell phones? (Of course, I’m not sure whether they would even have the option to turn JavaScript off; I don’t believe WebTV has that capability.)

By: Mike Stenhouse

Mike Stenhouse — Tue, 10 May 2005 10:59:34 +0000

To back up what Charles said, I tried to find cinema listings on a Blackberry over the weekend and was confounded by the use of JavaScript to submit the only form that would let me get access to listings for my local Vue/Warner. I went elsewhere… It’s worth remembering that sensible use of JS makes good commercial sense as well.