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Google Chrome Frame for Screen Readers?

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From: Robert Fentress
Date: Jun 23, 2015 2:08PM

Hello, all.

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of developing a JavaScript library that
emulated the behavior of the most standards-compliant, open source,
fully-featured screen reader/browser combination (not sure what that would
be). The way I'm envisioning it, the library would apply aria-hidden to
everything on the page and then use JavaScript to respond to key commands
by adding content to a single ARIA live region. Basically, the live region
would function as a virtual buffer of sorts.

Why would you reinvent the wheel like this? Well, basically it would allow
developers to code to standards, and ensure that if the user was accessing
the page with a screen reader that supported aria-hidden and live regions,
they could at least have a minimally accessible experience. The library
could include code that would let the user turn this emulation on or off,
allowing them to continue using whatever system they were comfortable
with. However, by doing this, developers wouldn't have to code to and test
on every single permutation of screen reader and browser and this would
encourage writing standards-compliant, accessible code. It might also give
AT vendors a common target. It would be something vaguely similar to the
approach Google used with its Chrome Frame tool.

Individual developers could add it to their pages, but it also wouldn't be
hard, I would think, to create a browser extension/bookmarklet that let the
end users apply the library to any page they wanted.

Okay, have at it! Please tell me what obvious things I'm missing here.
I've never done anything of this scope before (and I'm not volunteering),
so perhaps it is just impossibly complex or would incur some unacceptably
huge performance hit. Or perhaps it is wrong from some theoretical or
ethical perspective. I'd love to hear what others think about this, as I
suspect the answers will help me (and perhaps others) understand better the
details of how the technology works. Thanks!

Best,
Rob

--
Robert Fentress
Senior Accessibility Solutions Designer
540.231.1255

Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies
Assistive Technologies
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620 Drillfield Drive (0434)
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061