Accessible JavaScript Techniques - Interactivity Without Barriers

The outcome of this session is to explore JavaScript techniques in common and newly emerging interactive website design to eliminate barriers and streamline the user experience of a digital experience. There are a lot of ways to create interactive experience and we'll discuss common barriers to assistive technology users presented by highly scripted functionality.

First we'll cover the concept of graceful degradation and progressive enhancement - how we can enhance certain features to create engaging material while still seeing options to simplify the functionality under certain circumstances.

The remainder of the session will be focused on practical application of JavaScript techniques for keyboard navigation and focus management, custom interactive components and ARIA patters, dynamic content updates and notification, and form validation. Throughout examples of how these JavaScript techniques impact the end-user experience and assistive technology experience will be highlighted and explored.

This session encourages participation and questions - there is a lot of space to explore in this topic and we will have time to discuss alternatives or new ideas.