Read “Online Video Captioning” at Accessites.

However, the reality of it is people like using JavaScript and there are actually some good uses for it. As I describe in the Web Accessibility Guide the key to Accessible JavaScript is Unobtrusive JavaScript. Unobtrusive JavaScript essentially means making sure the site will work without JavaScript enabled. All critical functions of the site must be usable without JavaScript – this includes navigation and form submission among other items.

Additionally, it’s important to learn how to create your own scripts and not depend on pre-made scripts available on any old web site. Most of the scripts available on those sites use out of date methods that can cause more harm than good. If you do need a pre-made script, find a recently created one from a reputable source and make sure you understand how it works. Also make sure the script has to two essential features:

1. All functions and event handlers must be in a separate .js file – separating behavior from structure is the key to unobtrusive JavaScript.
2. All functions that use onMouseOver onMouseOut handlers must also use onFocus and onBlur handlers so that the script will work for keyboard users.

Before creating a site it’s important to think deeply about what will be needed to do whatever it is that needs to be done. If JavaScript is absolutely necessary make sure it’s unobtrusive and as usable as it can be. Take the time and effort to use JavaScript correctly and test it thoroughly before letting the site go live. If there are problems fix them – don’t leave them and hope people won’t notice, because they will. There’s no point in having a site if people can’t use it and search engines can’t index it properly.

This doesn’t mean that older sites can’t be optimized; just that it becomes exponentially harder to do the older the code is. The solution to this is to update the code as best as possible. Make sure there are no depreciated tags within the code. Pull any embedded and inline CSS out of the .html file and put it into an external .css file. Pull any JavaScript functions out of the .html and into an external .js file. Replace JavaScript navigation menus with CSS menus. Images should have descriptive alt text – especially if those images are part of the navigation or if the site’s header is an image. And finally add content to the site – the more text there is on the page the more there is for search engine crawlers to see.

Once the site is updated it’s time to do keyword research and update the title, description and keyword tags – and to do it correctly. Take the time to do extensive research on what keywords will work best for the site. When creating titles, descriptions and keywords make them relevant to each page. Don’t use a keyword on every individual page just for the sake of having it on a page. If the keyword is not used within the content don’t use it in the title, description or keyword tag.

Final step in SEO should be inbound linking – and in fact shouldn’t be considered until after all other updates to the code are completed. Yes, it’s true that inbound linking is probably the single most important part of SEO, but visitors still need to be able to use the site once they get to it. Rankings are all well and good but are pretty much worthless if the visitor can’t use the site. Make sure the site is usable before inviting visitors to see it. The site isn’t going to do anyone any good if the visitor – human or search engine spider alike – can’t get past the front door.

When Web Accessibility is mentioned, people tend to focus on how it can help disabled people — without looking at the bigger picture. Accessible sites are better for everyone. Even those without disabilities may be having trouble using a web site. Maybe a Flash or JavaScript element is preventing the site from being indexed properly. Old, out-of-date code with depreciated tags could be causing more problems than people realize.

Often times JavaScript menus are hard to use and can become useless when JavaScript is turned off or otherwise unavailable. Using images for navigation without proper alt text only adds to the problems. Even worse is the use of Flash in the site navigation, which usually means users will have to install a Flash player just to navigate the site. These issues don’t just affect visitors, but search engines as well. The web crawlers used by search engines to index a site are essentially blind and cannot interpret images or JavaScript. Without any text to read, they cannot properly index a site.

Some may worry that these changes will take too much time, cost too much or mean that their entire site will need to change. This is not necessarily true. Updating the code is relatively easy and doesn’t have to mean changing the look of the site. Yes, the navigation might need to be changed and maybe some different colors would work better; but these are still small changes, relatively speaking. Some sites will, of course, need more drastic changes — but it all depends on what is there to start with.