Understanding Accessibility
by Vivienne Trulock
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Guideline 6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
Checkpoint 6.4 - For scripts and applets, ensure that event handlers are input device-independent
Some individuals are restricted in the input devices they can use. Some can use only the keyboard, others can use only the mouse. Others must use other devices such as head pointers and virtual keyboards.
How do I do it?
Scripts which use device dependant attributes such as onmousedown, onmouseup, onclick, ondblclick, onkeydown, onkeyup and onkeypress may not be accessible to some of these individuals. Device independent attributes such as onfocus, onblur and onselect should be used instead. It may also be possible to use both the mouse and keyboard handlers to achieve the same accessibility.
How do I check that it meets the WCAG criteria?
Pages using scripts (as ascertained in Checkpoint 8.1) will be checked using the Edit > Find command in Dreamweaver or Notepad for the strings 'onMouse', 'onKey', 'onClick' and 'onDblClick'. Where device dependant attributes exist, that are not complemented by an alternative device script, the page will be deemed to have failed.
