[wp-hackers] Accessibility of WP back end (was: Is WP back end supposed to work without JavaScript?)

Lynne Pope lynne.pope at gmail.com
Sat May 2 05:14:00 GMT 2009


2009/5/2 Eric Marden <wp at xentek.net>

>  It's not just the JavaScript/AJAX that makes the UI
>> unusable by many though (this also catches those people behind corporate
>> firewalls that block JavaScript) as the whole admin interface falls way
>> short of meeting WCAG.
>>
>
> Can you explain how a firewall can block a client technology?
>
> +1 for accessibility though.


Yep, sure can. This is becoming increasingly common in corporate
environments and I've recently been seeing it in school/university
environments. Firewalls and proxy servers are getting configured to strip
out JavaScript before the pages get sent to the client machine. So, even
though the client browser may have JavaScript enabled, the script has
already been removed and is unable to be accessed.

This is not a new problem. It's also not just an issue for JavaScript as
some firewalls and proxies are over-cautious with their settings and block
far more scripting than they need to. However, it becomes really problematic
for WordPress where js is used for core functionality and not just for
progressive enhancement.

Lynne


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