Dynamic Content

Many sites have a sophisticated back-end, programmed in Java, PHP, Perl, Cold Fusion, ASP, or one of many other server-side scripting languages. Some people wonder about the accessibility of these languages. The truth is that the accessibility of the programming languages is totally irrelevant to the end result that the user sees in the Web page. All of the programming languages create HTML pages. The user never sees any of the programming code. The accessibility of the HTML is totally in the programmer's hands. If the programmer knows how to create accessible HTML, then the pages can be accessible, no matter what server-side scripting language the programmer is using.

When content is databased, it is usually served out through an HTML template. One or more areas of the template are dedicated to the dynamic content, while other areas are static, and may appear on multiple pages. It is important to ensure that the main template is accessible, or else the same accessibility errors will be repeated on all of the pages on which the template occurs.

Customized output

One of the exciting concepts in Web content delivery is that of customization and optimization. With a clever server-side script, the end user can receive the content in exactly the way that he wants to, seeing the features that he wants to see, and in the way that he wants to see them. A simplistic example is that of some news Web sites. Many of them allow the user to view the local news by entering in the city or zip code. Business sites allow users to track their particular stocks and bonds. Some sites also allow users to customize the site's appearance and layout to accommodate their disabilities. WebAIM began to design a script for this purpose some time ago. Unfortunately, our programmers have been busy doing other projects, which has put our disability customization project on hold, but the concept is still one worth pursuing, because, although it is possible to design pages that are accessible to nearly everyone, individual disability types may still benefit from pages designed especially for their needs (and not for the needs of those with other disabilities). This means that a Web site may have 10 or 15 different interfaces (or more), in order to provide customized interfaces for as many disability types as possible. The programming behind such a task is very involved, but the results can be worth it. Companies such as Reef have developed such a system already, although it is quite expensive.

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