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Re: JavaScript

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From: Cohen, Lisa A.
Date: Aug 24, 2001 8:49PM

Leo,

I also find the Section 508 position on JavaScript to be a bit fuzzy.

Since paragraph "L" specifies that "the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assisitive technology"
.... and ....
the WAI WCAG specifies that websites shall run with Javascript turned off as a Priority 1 guideline

... and ...

(back to the Section 508 Final Rule)
the Note (2) to 1194.22 says that "Web pages that conform to WCAG 1.0, level A (i.e., all priority 1 checkpoints) must also meet paragraphs (l), (m), (n), (o), and (p) of this section to comply with this section."

... and ...

elsewhere in the Section 508 Final Rule it seems to say only that the requirements borrow from the work done by the W3C,

I find myself asking questions like, Why is the Access Board's requirement less restrictive than the WAI WCAG guideline?
and, Does the Access Board assume that more assistive technologies will quickly "catch up" and work well with Javascript?

I have not been able to do much testing within the assistive technologies yet, but I did work briefly with a demo version of JAWS on one of our developing websites. I was having some trouble learning the JAWS navigation keys... but, the two things that stuck out to me were that a table which was coded EXACTLY like the example given in the WAI techniques was not read correctly by JAWS; and, the Javascript alert messages were interpreted perfectly by JAWS.

I would be interested to hear others thoughts about Section 508 vs. WAI WCAG on javascript.

Thanks,
Lisa