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Re: navigating applets

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From: Shane Anderson
Date: Jul 7, 2004 5:34AM

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Giacomo asked:
Can an html page with an applet be accessible with respect to keyboard navigation ?


Answer:
I have tried making this possible for quite some time now but it is not always possible. A work-around is to have a link to the applet where a new window pops up and only the applet is in the window. This way the applet gets focus. I am not sure how well this works across browsers and platforms.

Also to note about applets. Applets can only be implemented successfully (across platforms and browsers) using the applet tag which is depricated unless it is compiled using java1 compilers. This is due to IEs inability to use non MS JVMs when the object tag is used.

As a general rule applets should not be used for functionality which can be accomplished using other Web technologies. This has nothing to do with accessibility but rather the problems which arise because of the VM versioning problems.

With all that said I am not against applets. They provide great options but they are not robust. They are effectively used in environments where there exists some control over the users computer (e.g. a company intranet).


Shane Anderson
Programmer Analyst
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM.org)