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Comment by geggam | Hacker News Reader

Until the ADA comes along and demands you create an accessible to the blind site.

I've often wondered when the laws would start to be applied and I think its coming

> It is a common misconception that people with disabilities don't have or 'do' JavaScript, and thus, that it's acceptable to have inaccessible scripted interfaces, so long as it is accessible with JavaScript disabled. A 2012 survey by WebAIM of screen reader users found that 98.6% of respondents had JavaScript enabled. [0]

and that was 7 years ago. There may be certain complicated interactions that are a challenge for screen readers but simply because a page relies on JavaScript for rendering doesn't automatically mean it is inaccessible to screen readers.

[0] https://webaim.org/techniques/javascript/#reliance

I have a website that's a full page map. I care about accessibility - is there any way I can make this meaningfully accessible to the blind?

I suspect you're being glib, but you could look at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_for_the_blind

Look at WCAG 2 (web content accessiblity guidelines) they specify tags and elements common screen readers will understand to help make you site accessible.

This is a really good resource: https://accessibility.18f.gov/

A lot of frameworks now have some accessiblity built in if you add the correct attributes.

I'm confused. Why would a blind person be any less likely to use JavaScript?

To test for a blind persons ability to render your website a good method is a CLI browser. Neither the blind persons device or a CLI browser will render javascript

I’m no expert in this space, but if free, common, and easily accessible tools render your site readable and usable, I’m not sure how refusing to use those tools would be a claim under ADA.

There are plenty of real ways that sites are unusable by screen readers, using Javascript to download dynamic content shouldn’t be one of them.

Why on earth would you think that? The screen readers tie into modern browsers like Safari or Chrome.

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