WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Testing Web pages with Screen Reader after DisablingCSS:

for

From: JP Jamous
Date: Apr 25, 2017 7:51AM

Great point Birkir. I agree with you. Personally, I do not turn CSS off.

This started a long debate at work. We are still trying to find out if it behooves us or not. Personally, I don't see any value in turn it off. I would take JavaScript as an example.

Many posts on the web used to talk about turning JS off in the browser. The current web is loaded with JS that are encapsulated in different frameworks such as bootstrap and much more. All the sudden it became that turning JS off in the browser breaks the whole UI.

I am sure some folks out there still do it, but the majority would not touch it. The same applies to CSS. Let it be, as so many classes are used in the CSS to enhance many visual presentations. As long as the CSS is designed to accommodate low vision and color-blind users, why remove it?

It doesn't violate WCAG; It doesn't cause any issues; and the only alternative is to use more embedded CSS, which would make the page larger in size. Why have redundant CSS, when knowing that avoiding it completely is not feasible. It was developed for a reason.

I just wanted to answer his questions in case he was determined to test without it. Although, I'd recommend keeping it running as more visual issues can be captured that way, which would impact low vision and color-blind users.