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RE: Section 508 Standards Compliance and Scripts

for

From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Sep 4, 2003 10:03AM

I don't know enough about the JavaScript engine to know whether or not JS
content is delivered before or after plain HTML but I do know that if you
have tested with JS disabled and no content appears, then there is a problem
with compliance.

JAWS users may not be affected because JAWS runs on top of IE and as long as
IE is not JS-disabled, the JS-content will be "visible" to them. However,
compliance with JAWS is not complete compliance - other users use other
applications which may or may not support JS or in fact may not support some
JS functions.

I suspect that your test was as revealing as much as any of us could say.

Jules

> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 11:03 AM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: Section 508 Standards Compliance and Scripts
>
>
> I come to the community seeking enlightenment (especially if
> there are any
> of you out there w/ a legal background).
> Kentucky Virtual University is currently reviewing Section
> 508 standards
> compliance of several distance education course management
> systems (CMS).
> While doing so, I ran across this explanation of why a system is in
> compliance with the part of Section 508 that governs scripting:
> "[Software Package X] uses only minimal dynamic scripting for content
> presentation. It does use script to conditionally write some
> content to a
> page. Content rendered in this manner is written to the
> screen before the
> page loads, and can't be distinguished from standard content."
> It is pretty clear in the context of the paragraph this was
> taken from that
> they are referring to client-side JavaScript and not a server
> side solution.
> Correct me if I'm wrong (and it's been known to happen), but isn't
> JavaScript interpreted AS the page loads (at least in the
> case that they are
> describing)? How can scripting write content to the page
> BEFORE it loads?
> This statement makes no sense to me.
> KYVU currently uses a CMS that makes a similar claim about its product
> ("content written to the screen before the page loads"). Disabling
> JavaScript while using that platform makes course material
> inaccessible.
> All an end user receives is a one sentence message stating
> that the page
> won't work w/ JavaScript disabled, and no other means to
> access the course
> is provided. How can this be considered compliance w/ 508???
> I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. And TIA for all
> comments. (And to anyone who also subscribes to the
> Webdesign-L discussion
> list, I apologize for the cross-posting).
>
> Bryce Fields
> Web Developer
> Kentucky Virtual University
> http://www.kyvu.org/ <http://www.kyvu.org/>;
>
> 1-877-740-4357
> 1-502-573-1555 ext 288
>
> "Do or do not. There is no try." -- Yoda
>
>
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