The Paciello Group Blog Your Accessibility Partner

An issue that arises fairly frequently in regards to web applications is the use of hidden iframe elements used for retrieving data using JavaScript. While they can be easily hidden from visual display using CSS display:none, they are sometimes picked up by screen readers and other AT that extract the DOM code from browsers and re-present it to users in a form that can be navigated using specific key strokes.

For example, the JAWS screen reader provides frame navigation keys: M and Shift+M to cycle forward and back through frame and iframe elements. JAWS also provides a frames dialog (open using insert + F9 that displays a list of frames and iframes on a page identified by their titles. If the title attribute is not present on the frame/iframe then the URL of the source document for the frame is listed.

Furthermore, when a page loads users of some assistive technology  hear information about the content of the page including how many frames are present. So understandably informing users of frames that have no usable content and providng access to them is a sub-optimal outcome.

How to ensure an iframe is hidden

If an iframe contains content that is not intended for users, there are a number of things you can do to ensure it is not available to any users:

1. Use CSS display:none
2. Set the height and width attributes to “0″
3. set the tabindex attribute to “-1″
4. And just in case a user still manages to encounter the iframe, set the title attribute with text indicating it does  not contain anything.

Code example:

CSS:

iframe.hidden
{
display:none
}

HTML:

<iframe src="javascript.html" width="0" height="0" tabindex="-1" title="empty" class="hidden">

The Future - the hidden attribute

HTML5 includes a hidden attribute that can be added to any element:

When specified on an element, it indicates that the element is not yet, or is no longer, relevant. User agents should not render elements that have the hidden attribute specified.

When supported, the use of this attribute will make the hiding of elements and element content, such as an iframe, simpler.  Unfortunately at this time no browser supports the hidden attribute, so taking into account legacy software it will be some years before the use of the hidden attribute can be recommended, until that point the recommendations outlined above will have to suffice.

Will HTML5 make the use of WAI-ARIA in HTML redundant? the short answer is definitley not. There are many ARIA roles and properties that are not provided by native elements and attributes in HTML5.  Also developers still  have the desire to roll their own interactive controls  even though they have been available in HTML as native elements for 11 years, why would this suddenly change when HTML5 arrives?

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The Paciello Group (TPG) has been selected by AOL to enhance the accessibility of jQuery, a popular open source toolkit used to build dynamic web applications. This work will foster greater compatibility between consumer-facing web applications and assistive technology used by people with disabilities to access the Internet. Enhancements will incorporate the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Accessible Rich Internet Application Specification and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

“Embedding accessibility support into widely used toolkits like jQuery is essential in order for people with disabilities to take full advantage of services delivered via web applications built by AOL and developers around the world,” said Tom Wlodkowski, AOL’s accessibility director. “Our goal is to minimize the barriers application developers confront today in making rich web interfaces accessible.”

The initial focus of the AOL/TPG partnership is to assess the current level of accessibility of jQuery user interface (UI) components. TPG will then contribute JavaScript code to address gaps in accessibility to the jQuery community. AOL uses jQuery extensively and will leverage the accessible components in future consumer-facing web applications. When released in the next version of jQuery, any developer using the toolkit will inherit these accessibility enhancements.

“TPG is excited about our partnership with AOL,” stated Mike Paciello, founder and president of The Paciello Group. “We see this as an incredible opportunity to influence the usability of next generation web applications and to promote the inclusion of users with disabilities. By enhancing the jQuery developer toolkit, developers will have the framework for building accessible and usable rich internet applications.”

This project is also supported with the financial contribution of the European Commission in the context of the ÆGIS project (Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards). The AEGIS project is focused on the research and development of solutions to advance accessibility of mainstream ICT (desktop, rich Internet and mobile applications).

For more information, please contact Brian Landrigan.

At long last! The US Access Board today announced the Section 508/255 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. A 90-day comment period follows.

Please refer to the US Access Board web site for additional details.

I thought I’d clear up any potential confusion over the recent rumor that the revised version of the Section 508 and Section 255 guidelines would be published for public comment in March.

Last night I confirmed with the US Access Board that the version of the guidelines to be released in March are an “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM)”, with a 90-day period for public comment.

It is important to note that this Advance Notice is a step BEFORE a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The Advance Notice is being provided in the interest of getting material out to the public in a timely manner. This Advance Notice allows draft text to be released. After public comments are received and reviewed, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will then be released, after preparation of a regulatory assessment, as well as a full Preamble. The date of the NPRM is not known at this time.

An official notice will appear in the US Federal Register when draft text is available.

Note that the US Access Board will be holding a special session at this year’s CSUN conference in San Diego. Members of the public will be invited to speak during the event. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

You can find CSUN on Facebook.