Ashby Web Design Blog > Accessibility & Unobstrusive JavaScript

Accessibility & Unobstrusive JavaScript

Standard Compliant Web Design

Accessibility

AWD have been producing fully accessible websites for several years, ensuring that each user regardless of their disability are not restricted whilst browsing the web. However even though more and more people are becoming aware of accessibility issues on the web, there are still many web design agencies out there producing inaccessible websites whilst using bad coding techniques to produce web pages.

Ashby Web Design's Number 1 goal is Accessibility. Recently all the websites we have produced have conformed to a WAI-AAA rating, ensuring that all the websites we produce render and function correctly on all devices such as screen readers, track-balls etc. AWD cannot stress the importance of accessibility enough, and even though no law suits against accessibility has arisen in the UK, it is only a matter of time before it does.

Choosing the Right Web Design Company

We have developed a short list of things to look out for whilst choosing a Web Designer, possibly a few tests you can do yourself:

  • The structure of a web page - all pages should be structured correctly so it makes sense to users with audio browsers. To test for structure all web pages should validate to XHTML 1.0 Strict (the doctype has to be XHTML 1.0 Strict to ensure the correct structure).
  • The content flow of the web page - all the content on a web page should appear in the same sequence when the style sheets are enabled or disabled, this ensures that screen readers will read the content the same way as a visual user reading from left to right. You can test this by viewing the web page in Firefox and disabling the style sheets (View > Page Style > No Style).
  • Section 508 - all web pages should pass the 508 check points to ensure each html element used has been used as intended, and any instances of JavaScript or Flash include alternative content. These check points can be tested at cynthia.
  • WAI Guidelines - all pages should conform to the Accessibility Priority guidelines, there is no reason why a website should not pass with an AAA rating; these guide lines can be tested at WAVE (please note that text inputs and text areas no longer need placeholder text if a label appears next to the element or includes the 'for' attribute).
  • Common misbeliefs to be aware of - Some web designers use Access Keys and Tab Indexs to allow non-mouse devices to navigate around a web page. However these features are no longer necessary and intrude on the users preferences by overiding their personalised shortcuts, and making some elements within the web page unaccessible. The best practice to make each element accessible is not to include any tab-indexes whatsoever, hence the tabs will follow the flow of the document.

Unobstrusive JavaScript

Ashby Web Design have now joined the current trend of using Unobstrusive JavaScript and our new websites are reaping the benefits. JavaScript has always proven to be a nuisance at times, especially when not all devices support the framework. However the birth of jQuery has sparked developers worldwide to include more interactivity to their web pages. Ashby Web Design over the past few months have developed a light weight JavaScript Library to include in our current and future websites.

Our new JavaScript Library has been coded so it is not dependant on a specific device unlike old techniques. The beauty of unobstrusive JavaScript is that all events are dynamically added at runtime, hence only devices with JavaScript enabled will run the commands. In the past JavaScript has caused many problems for devices that do not support the JavaScript framework, where JavaScript commands in the HTML would generate runtime errors. However the Unobstrusive JavaScript approach ensures that the HTML includes no JavaScript commands whatsoever, hence we have the separation of content, presentation and behaviour that every web designer should aim for.