Usability and accessibility » JavaScript and Progressive Enhancement

Sebastian Greger This is a living document
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Progressive Enhancement is a core pillar of building robust, inclusive websites. In a nutshell, the idea is that a site is usable with the most minimal requirements and UX-enhancing techniques like JavaScript are used as optional enhancements, where supported.

Progressive Enhancement, explained

Progressive Enhancement, the New Hotness™ gomakethings.com
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It’s 2022, and 36.8% of respondents (not a representative survey, but assuming the demographic of Sara Soueidan’s […]

On the unavailability of JavaScript

Contrary to common belief, this is not just about a few tech-savvy users who disable JavaScript with intent. The much larger share, and probably about 1 in 100 visitors do not get the full experience due to other reasons.

Everyone has JavaScript, right? kryogenix.org
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Stuart Langridge presents this simple, yet convincing flow chart to illustrates all the various things that may go wrong as users request a web site requiring JavaScript code. […]
How many people are missing out on JavaScript enhancement? gds.blog.gov.uk
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This is a 9 years old article. Yet, while the quantitative numbers may have shifted in one direction or the other, the qualitative statements stand unchanged: it cannot – and must not – be assumed that all JavaScript code is executed for every visitor of a website. […]

Example stories for illustration

The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML – Terence Eden’s Blog shkspr.mobi
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Terence Eden tells the story of a young woman who, forced by circumstances, has to use a public website using a tiny gaming […]

I'm Sebastian, Sociologist and Interaction Designer aiming to bring toge­ther social science and design for inclusive, privacy-focused, and sustainable "human-first" digital strategies. This is my "digital garden" with carefully curated resources. For a more stream-like outlet, see my journal.

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