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Re: Is javascript a big issue?

for

From: Larry G. Hull
Date: Mar 15, 2004 7:44AM

Chris,

You are going to turn away anyone who comes to your site without a
JavaScript enabled browser, i.e., either not enabled or not supported.

Few people using a computer have a browser that does not support JavaScript.

The few who do are largely the deaf-blind and some blind people who
for one reason or another (e.g., a hearing loss) don't use a screen
reader.

There is a growing number of people browsing the Web with devices
such as cell phones and PDA's. I don't know whether there is support
for JavaScript but if this group is important to you, you should
check. Perhaps someone who knows more about this area can comment.

Finally, depending upon how you code the JavaScript-based navigation,
it may or may not be usable by people using screen readers.

The following code is a problem as the screen reader user has no clue
where the link goes,
<a href="javascript:navFunction();">
<img src="navFunction.gif"></a>
and the usual remedy is to use alt text to provide the information to
the screen reader user.
<a href="javascript:navFunction();">
<img src="navFunction.gif" alt="navLocation"></a>

BTW: I understand that, when "navLocation" is both the text shown by
the image navFunction.gif and the alt text, people with voice
recognition technology have a much easier time using your page.

Larry


At 1:17 AM +0000 3/15/04, Chris Price wrote:
>How many visitors am I going to turn away if I have js based navigation
>without non-js alternative. I know how to provide the alternative I'm just
>interested in who this affects.
>
>It is a WAG Priority 1 issue so I imagine it must be significant. Or is that
>out of date.
>
>--
>Chris Price


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