[Nfb-web] AxsJAX --- Distributing Accessibility At Web-Scale

Wed Nov 14 14:50:05 CST 2007

Hello everyone,

            I just wanted to share this with all you Web gurus to acquaint
you with this accessibility framework for AJAX. I have yet to further
acquaint myself with AJAX to begin incorporating it in to Web sites I
create. You can do some pretty neat things with it. Alterhing the content on
a portion of a Web page without having to reload the entire page, or
displaying additional information on pages with the selection of a tab or an
icon are two such examples. I have encountered Web sites on which this AJAX
functionality has been implamented. Here is the information:

   From: "T.V Raman" <

raman at google.com

Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:10:05 -0800

To:

wai-xtech at w3.org,

w3c-wai-pf at w3.org

CC:

Subject: AxsJAX --- Distributing Accessibility At Web-Scale

Friends,

Some of you saw live demos at the W3C Plenary from me and Charles

of an early release of our AxsJAX framework. We just announced it

to the wider Web community --- see

http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/11/introducing-ASXJax -access-enabling-ajax.html

I'm attaching a list of Frequently Asked Questions to the end of

this message. AxsJAX and its associated documentation is at

http://code.google.com/p/google-axsjax

AxsJAX Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

     * 1 Introduction To AxsJAX

         * 1.1 What Is AxsJAX?

         * 1.2 What New Opportunities Does AxsJAX Open Up?

         * 1.3 What Are Its Accessibility Goals?

         * 1.4 AxsJAX Uses JavaScript --- Isn't That Inaccessible?

         * 1.5 Is AxsJAX Specific To Google Applications?

         * 1.6 What Are The Long-term Goals For AxsJAX?

         * 1.7 How Is AxsJAX Pronounced?

     * 2 AxsJAX Technical Overview

         * 2.1 What Prerequisites Does AxsJAX Assume?

         * 2.2 How Does AxsJAX Leverage W3C ARIA?

         * 2.3 What Google Applications Does It Presently Enhance?

         * 2.4 How Does AxsJAX Help Screen Reader Vendors?

         * 2.5 How Does AxsJAX Help The Evolution Of Access Standards?

         * 2.6 How Does AxsJAX Inject Accessibility?

         * 2.7 How Can Web Developers Experience AxsJAX Enhancements?

1 Introduction To AxsJAX

1.1 What Is AxsJAX?

Web 2.0 applications are powered by AJAX --- Asynchronous JavaScript And

XML. AxsJAX leverages AJAX techniques to inject accessibility support into

Web 2.0 applications.

1.2 What New Opportunities Does AxsJAX Open Up?

AJAX techniques have helped Web developers create live applications within

Web browsers. The AxsJAX framework helps inject accessibility features

into these applications so that users of adaptive technologies such as

screen readers and self-voicing browsers experience the same level of

interactivity that is now taken for granted by users of Web 2.0
applications.

1.3 What Are Its Accessibility Goals?

Our accessibility goals include but are not limited to:

     * Discover and codify design patterns for access-enabling AJAX

  applications.

     * Serve as a test-bed for implementors of adaptive technologies in

  extending their tools to handle Web 2.0 applications.

     * Help discover and fill-in gaps in the various standards that deal

  with the accessibility of AJAX applications.

1.4 AxsJAX Uses JavaScript --- Isn't That Inaccessible?

Web applications that use JavaScript have traditionally proven an access

barrier to screen reader users for the following reasons:

     * Adaptive technologies cannot always interpret the meaning of actions

  invoked via JavaScript.

     * Asynchronous page updates leave screen readers at a loss as to what

  to speak.

A set of W3C specifications collectively refered to as

<

http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-aria-roadmap-20071019/W3C

 ARIA is

addressing these issues. Though AJAX applications will continue to remain

unusable from legacy browsers like lynx, there is no reason why they

should remain forever inaccessible to users of adaptive technologies.

Finally, JavaScript in the browser is a powerful mechanism that has

 enabled us to turn the Web from a world of static documents to a platform

for deploying dynamic end-user applications. The primary goal of the

AxsJAX framework is to leverage these same advantages presented by

JavaScript in the browser to create flexible, powerful accessibility

solutions.

1.5 Is AxsJAX Specific To Google Applications?

We are open-sourcing the AxsJAX framework early in its development to

foster a healthy community around the concept of access-enabling Web

applications by injecting accessibility enhancements via JavaScript.

AxsJAX initially targets Google applications. As we discover design

patterns that work, we are refactoring these into common modules that

foster code reuse. Notice that these common modules are not Google

specific, and can be leveraged to inject accessibility enhancements to any

application deployed on the Web.

1.6 What Are The Long-term Goals For AxsJAX?

The long-term goals of AxsJAX will be largely end-user driven. This

initial release hints at the type of end-user benefits that can be enabled

via such a framework. Our goal is to create a healthy community

built on an open framework for enhancing the accessibility of Web

2.0 applications.

 1.7 How Is AxsJAX Pronounced?

 AxsJAX is pronounced Access Jax to rhyme with AJAX.

 2 AxsJAX Technical Overview

 2.1 What Prerequisites Does AxsJAX Assume?

 AxsJAX injects accessibility enhancements as defined by

 <

http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-aria-roadmap-20071019/W3C

 ARIA. The

 prerequisites for experiencing its benefits include:

     * A modern Web browser like Firefox 2.0 or later that supports W3C
ARIA.

     * Adaptive technologies that respond correctly to the accessibility

  enhancements introduced by W3C ARIA.

     * In particular, many of the enhancements injected by AxsJAX depend on

  support for live regions a feature that enables adaptive technologies

  like screen readers and self-voicing browsers deal correctly with

  asynchronous updates to portions of a Web page.

 2.2 How Does AxsJAX Leverage W3C ARIA?

 W3C ARIA is a collection of specifications that is presently under

 development at the W3C. Early support for W3C ARIA is available in Firefox

 2.0, and its features are beginning to be leveraged by newer versions of

 screen readers.

 W3C ARIA works by enhancing the DOM with accessibility specific

 properties. The AxsJAX framework enables the injection of such DOM

 properties into existing Web applications via JavaScript. It provides a

 light-weight yet flexibile mechanism for experimenting with various design

 patterns for enhancing the accessibility of AJAX applications.

 2.3 What Google Applications Does It Presently Enhance?

     * Google Reader

     * Google Search

 2.4 How Does AxsJAX Help Screen Reader Vendors?

 The set of specifications collectively known as

 <

http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-aria-roadmap-20071019/%20GMT%3B%20Pat

 h%3D/ Set-Cookie:%20TPExits%3Dnull|null|null|10|null|null|%3B%20Exp

 ires%3DWed,%2001-Oct-2008%2022:22:31%20GMT%3B%20Path%3D/

 Connection:%20close

 Content-Type:%20text/html%3B%20charset%3DISO-8859-1W3C ARIA is still

 under active development. Applications that have been enhanced via AxsJAX

 provide real-life examples for testing ARIA support within new versions of

 screen readers. Thus, whereas individual test-suites help screen reader

 developers test support for a given feature, AxsJAX enabled applications

 provide live examples for carrying out end-to-end testing.

 2.5 How Does AxsJAX Help The Evolution Of Access Standards?

 W3C ARIA is still under active development. By access-enabling complete

 applications, AxsJAX helps in the development of the W3C ARIA

 specifications by discovering what works and by identifying gaps that need

 to be filled.

 2.6 How Does AxsJAX Inject Accessibility?

 The AxsJAX framework can inject accessibility enhancements into existing

 Web 2.0 applications using any of several standard Web techniques:

     * As bookmarklets --- small snippets of JavaScript that are used to

  create smart bookmarks.

     * Using GreaseMonkey --- a powerful browser extension that allows

  end-users to customize the look and feel of Web sites via custom scripts.

 In particular, the accessibility enhancements provided by AxsJAX are not

 tied to any single injection technique, and we are looking to the Open

 Source community to come up with additional innovative means for

 performing such enhancements.

2.7 How Can Web Developers Experience AxsJAX Enhancements?

The open source <

http://firevox.clcworld.net/Fire

 Vox extension to

 Firefox provides an ideal tool for Web developers who may not necessarily

 have commercial screen readers available for testing. Fire Vox is a

 cross-platform self-voicing extension to Firefox that includes early

 support for most of the leading edge features of W3C ARIA.

 Author: T.V. Raman, Charles L. Chen

 <

mailto:raman at google.com

, clchen at google.com<

raman at google.com,

clchen at google.com

 Date: 2007/10/30 14:35:13

 --Charles and Raman (The Google Access Jacks)

_______________________________________________

blindtlk mailing list

blindtlk at nfbnet.org

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk

Peter Donahue

 "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten"
Joel 2-25