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DHTML Accessibility


This article explains how to create accessible Web pages using Dynamic HTML (DHTML) with Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 and later. Accessible Web pages offer alternative methods for viewing and providing input to a Web page. Traditional HTML represents content as a hierarchy, making it easy to develop tools that make Web pages accessible to users who have special needs. DHTML offers additional capabilities, including enhanced support for accessibility.

This article includes the following sections, which explain the requirements for authoring accessible Web pages.

What is an Accessible Web Page?

Accessibility problems can occur when a user interacts with a Web page. For example, a user might not be able to view the content of the page due to blindness or limited vision, or the user might not be able to interact with the page due to an inability to maneuver the mouse. Accessible Web pages provide alternatives for accomplishing these tasks.

The first accessibility requirement of a Web page is that its content can be represented visually and nonvisually. Programs called screen readers are used with Internet Explorer to represent the page to the user through a sense other than sight, such as sound (voice synthesizer) or touch (Braille). The second requirement is that the user must be able to access all parts of the Web page using something other than the mouse, such as with keyboard input.

Internet Explorer takes advantage of HTML's hierarchical structure and automatically makes most Web pages accessible. For example, the A object indicates which areas on the page the user can click, so Internet Explorer automatically allows the user to tab to any A object and press ENTER to follow the link. The A element also encloses text that Internet Explorer provides to a screen reader, which in turn translates the text into an audible description of the link.

Tips for Creating Accessible Web Pages

While creating accessible Web pages, you might encounter difficulties that can prevent Internet Explorer from exposing your Web page in an accessible manner. Implementing the tips in this section can help you avoid these difficulties.

Accessible HTML Elements

Some HTML elements—images, text, and links—are accessible, and some are not. Each accessible element (tag) in an HTML document is represented in the document's accessibility hierarchy. For more information about the accessibility hierarchy, see HTML Content Accessibility.

The following elements are accessible:

You can make nonaccessible elements accessible by specifying a value for the element's TABINDEX attribute. The following elements are nonaccessible:

Related Topics

The following links provide additional information about accessibility.



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