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RE: Accessibility of dotNET

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From: Derek Featherstone
Date: Apr 24, 2003 7:27AM

> My question to this list: Has anyone found information about ASPdotNET
> (regarding how to make it accessible) - other than the very little bit
> offered on the MSDN website?

I can't say that I've really read too much of the MSDN reference material,
however here are some of my observations on what I've seen with ASP.NET:

1. As Joel mentioned, different HTML is delivered to different browsers. If
the user agent is a recent version of IE and client-side error checking is
enabled, then it will create code including client-side, JavaScript based
error checking. This is backed up with server-side checking for alternative
browsers (and presumably IE if JS is off).

2. With ASP.NET, client side checking can be either on or off. When it is
on, the .NET controls auto-generated code that allows for displaying error
messages instantly to the user. These error messages are in
<span>...</span>'s that are hidden from graphical browsers with visibility:
hidden or perhaps display: none. JAWS will read content that is visibility:
hidden, but not display: none. I don't recall if the ASP.NET generated code
uses visibility: hidden or display: none, but it has obvious implications
and testing would be required...

3. The <span>'s contained many attributes that are used to perform the
client-side error checking -- these attributes are not part of HTML, so if
they were to be included, it would appear that a custom DTD would be
required for ensuring that documents validate.

Derek.
--
Derek Featherstone <EMAIL REMOVED>
Further Ahead Inc.
phone: 613.599.9784;
toll-free: 1.866.932.4878 (North America)
Web Development: http://www.furtherahead.com
Training and Learning: http://www.completelearning.com



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