Live Regions as a Solution for Web 2.0 Accessibility

Abstract

Web 2.0 applications now include desktop-like User Interfaces (UI), with behavior such as the ability to dynamically update a region of a Web page, drag and drop elements, and dramatically improved application responsiveness. Unfortunately, accompanying this exciting new functionality a number of accessibility challenges have been identified. Most issues involve exposing a combination of dynamic updates via Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), Dynamic HTML (DHTML), and semantics. Assistive Technologies (AT) can no longer employ conventional strategies to access information updates in a Web system. The solution to the AJAX accessibility problem is a relatively new specification called the Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). Live Regions, part of the ARIA specification, defines how to expose Document Object Model (DOM) updates in a way meaningful to AT. The aim of this article is to introduce the Live Region syntax and several identified issues and changes to the WAI-ARIA specification, and als, to demonstrate how Live Regions can be implemented as an accessible Web 2.0 solution through a use case, ReefChat.