100 Days of A11y

Day 28: Accessible JavaScript Events

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Today I sought to learn about JavaScript events. Specifically, in the context of accessibility, I wanted to dig deeper into two ideas that can make or break the interaction of assistive technologies with websites and web apps:

  1. there should be no more than one event assigned to an element (some exceptions may apply)
  2. create device-independent event handlers

Thing I accomplished

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Searched for articles and videos pertaining to proper use of event handlers to optimize accessibility.

What I learned today

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As developers, we shouldn't offer interaction with just one type of device or peripheral. Coding device-independent event handlers will open up the experience to a wider audience of users. We know to make our sites keyboard accessible, but we shouldn't build just for keyboard users either. Examples of device-independent event handlers:

The examples aforementioned are not unbreakable. Altering default behaviors can present problems.

While searching for articles, I was amazed to go back 10 years (or more!) on the topic of accessible JavaScript. My time in this field is still so fresh and new that I forget how long these conversations have been going on. A huge thank you to all who have initiated these conversations and built an education for the rest of us!

Resources

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