Accessible Javascript - Ouch
Posted on 2006-02-25 (Updated on 2019-01-20)
To help increase the useability of the Warren County web site, I've been looking into accessible JavaScript. We currently use some expand/collapse scripts, and they're real hokey. The function calls are hard-coded into the links, and expanding them is akin to taping on the additional code with duct tape. Due to my anal, perfectionist approach to this sort of thing, these scripts simply have to go.
With purely honorable intentions, I jumped face-first into the world of accessible JavaScript and promptly drowned. From what I can see, no one has a definitive answer to this problem. There are some great things going on, with You should've been @media being one of the better ones in my opinion. However, what we're lacking is an answer. I've looked into DOM scripting, with events and functions littering each page I come across. Still, I've yet to find a good solid place to jump off from, and I think that will be the status quo for the next few months.
This is the kind of place I want to be, the kind of situation that makes me enjoy web design. Programming for an environment as volatile as the web is a great challenge, especially with the evils at work and the hurdles that must be overcome. Creating something that a distractable 15-year-old wants to use that will also provide the same services for a grandmother with cataracts is a task worthy of any programmer. Things like accessible JavaScript are simply ways to persevere and make a name for yourself.
Tags: javascript content