Yahoo! Experiences with Accessibility, DHTML, and Ajax in Rich
The Ajax Experience
Boston · October 23 - 25, 2006
About this Presentation
The Internet's dramatic shift from static to dynamic sites presents a series of new challenges to those committed to and dependent upon accessibility.
Many of these dynamic sites are beginning to offer rich functionality previously found only in desktop-based software applications. On the desktop, accessibility is maintained through interchangeable input (keyboard and mouse), and through OS-level APIs that facilitate detailed and continuous communication with Assistive Technology (AT). In the browser, this interchangeability is often missing, and what primitive AT communication there is bypasses the OS’s API and is shared too infrequently.
In this session I will talk about challenges of DHTML/Ajax accessibility, review the current state of the art, and offer a series of four approaches that, in total, can make these modern interfaces more accessible.
Technical Evangelist for Yahoo!
Nate is a member of the YUI Library team, and an editor of the Yahoo! User Interface Blog. He was one of the first web developers at Yahoo!, and has been instrumental in creating and defining the practice of Web Development and Front-end Engineering. Through evolving roles as developer, manager, and evangelist on both the development and user experience and design sides of the company, Nate has championed modern standards-based web development, a commitment to accessibility, code and pattern library creation, and open-source and blogging initiatives. Through it all, Nate focuses on the intersection and coordination of design and development, helping teams understand “why” in addition to “how”.
Nate speaks worldwide about the intersections of Design and Technology, and blogs occasionally at http://nate.koechley.com/blog/.