The art of compliance and AJAX powered sites

I've been scouring the net the past few months seeing more and more occurances of AJAX powered websites. Most notably recently BBC's website http://www.bbc.co.uk has added some AJAX, a quick click into the news section, if you've been there before, you'll notice a set of red bars somewhere in the middle of the page with + buttons on the right. Typical Accordion AJAX and the "YOUR LOCAL NEWS, WEATHER AND SPORT HERE (Beta)" right underneath.

The problem with AJAX as I've said before and any other techno make-up applied to sites is that while those who can see would be in awe but those who can't, those who use screenreaders will suffer.

The BBC website is probably UK's biggest and most accessed website. There are now government laws in placed for websitse to comply with stanards so to make those with disabilities can make use of the net too, but not only from a quick scan of the BBC's website come up with a lot of HMTL Validation errors, AJAX does not work well with screen readers.

All I'm saying is... I'm suprised. I'm currently working on the ICMA Centre's new website which hopefully not only comply to standard but also to optismise the experience for people who use screenreaders. AJAX is something that I'm planning to add, but how I'm going to implement it is to have two difference version of the component avaliable, one is the normal "php click and wait for reload" and the other is powered by AJAX. The user who'll be using screenreader will be using the first component while others will use the 2nd. To differentiate between the users all they need is to click on an "accessibility" link which will store session data and/or cookie to remember the user's preferance for the rest of their journey through the site. Which I'm trying to say is, sites should be built like that, it should be accessible not only because the law requires but also to maximise the number of people able to view the site and understand it.

The importance is comparable to marketing and optimizing the sitemap in order for people to flow through the information provided by the website to increase their satisfaction of browsing the site.

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[ 03:07 ] 09^th August, 2006

tom

Have you tried their features with a screenreader? They seem to work just fine.

[ 18:29 ] 09^th August, 2006

skyro

Yes, they offer a text only version of website which works just fine but could still use some improvement with | (vertical bars) I noticed in the title, but the graphical version is horrific to use in screen readers But my point here being no one should be penalised for the equipment they use and instead of offering a text-only version of sites as a link. It should by default shows a page that is visually pleasing but also pleasing to those with disabilities. To see this in a different viewpoint and to elaborate a bit more, it is like, I suppose how airlines call their seats "economy/value" class but they're starting to change that to "Hospitality" class as they've finally realised the word "economy" means cheap, if you catch what I'm trying to say. In the context of websites, it makes the user to the site feel unwelcomed or perhaps a minor discriminated against. Of course offering a site like that is not only because of accessiblity but also, allows people with slower hardware and/or connection to view the site with the least stress.

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