Implementing ARIA for Real World

Accessibility

CSUN2009

Jared Smith Thomas Logan

http://csuntweetup.com/

Use #csun09 hashtag in tweets

ARIA

• Accessible Rich Internet Applications

• Specification developed by the PFWG of the W3C’s WAI. Huh?

• Currently published as a Last Call Working Draft

ARIA enhances accessibility of...

• ... dynamic content and AJAX

• ... scripted widgets and interactive controls

• ... keyboard interactions within a web page

Bridges the gap to future versions of HTML/XHTML

AJAX

Jesse James GarrettFebruary 2005

“Asynchronous Javascript + XML”

AJAX

Jesse James GarrettFebruary 2005

“Asynchronous Javascript + XML”

It’s really just XMLHttpRequest

AJAX

Jesse James GarrettFebruary 2005

“Asynchronous Javascript + XML”

It’s really just XMLHttpRequest

...and stuff

AJAX•HTML

•JavaScript

•CSS

•XML

•DOM

•XMLHTTPRequest

Why the AJAX explosion?

Because “AJAX” is not nearly as geeky

as“XMLHttpRequest... and stuff”

•What interactive objects are available?

•What properties do they have?

•How do they relate?

• Is what changed important?

Screen Readers and Dynamic Content

ARIACore components

• Roles <form role=”search”>

• States<button aria-pressed=”true”>

• Properties<input aria-required=”true”>

Landmark Roles

• Banner, search, main, navigation, complementary, etc.

• Allows instant access to major page components

• The end of “skip” links?

• What about sighted keyboard users?

How do you point users to content or AJAX updates?

Should you?

Live Regions

Live Regions

• aria-live=”off”

• aria-live=”polite”

• aria-live=”assertive”

ARIAother enhancements

• Drag and drop points

• Advanced interactive widgets and controls

• Relationships and labelling

• Sort properties

• Fills keyboard gaps - makes thing tabable and/or focusable

Resources

• http://codetalks.org/

• http://queuemusic.org/

Questions?

Jared Smith Thomas Logan