WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

ARIA: Dojo vs EXTjs

for

From: Tech
Date: Jul 25, 2008 6:20AM

We have spend 2 weeks evaluating Dojo vs EXTjs (largely because some on
this list mention Dojo so often).

EXT is by far the more ambitious, supported, and active project, with
many times the number of Dojo's widgets. They work beautifully, but
their general accessibility, and certainly their ARIA ambition is
spotty, inconsistent, or non-existent.

I was prepared to chalk that up to something they were getting around
to, until reading this post on EXT's forums from last year.

http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5940&;highlight=tree+bullet

The entire culture, from the lead developer on down, appears to be: "Not
our problem, just make a separate accessible interface."

Clearly, accessibility has not affected the popularity of this
impressive library with hundreds of major corporations and tens of
thousands of developers.

But popular isn't always good. Clearly, these are both excellent
frameworks with talented, well intentioned people, with perhaps a very
different market focus--presently. It would really help if I could get
WebAim's take on EXTjs. If we go that route, we have two big concerns:

1) are we creating the ultimate slap in the face to those with Assistive
needs, or can we find some middle position that lets us use this
formidable set of tools for general users, hoping that EXT improves in
this area? (In fairness, in the 1.2 years since that post above, they
may have, but I couldn't find any evidence of it).

2) are Government mandates really affecting business models? I am
hearing that they may, and even should, and probably will, but i rarely
see anyone really too concerned with it, or many case histories
discussed. Is there just no enforcement here? Do most vendors to
government agencies with strict rules just go the 2nd interface
alternative for their Ajax applications? That seems awfully expensive to
us.

Just trying to do the right thing here. Opinions on all of the above
welcome.

Thanks