Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully

These checkpoints deal with how to handle all the wonderful clever stuff that Internet Explorer and Netscape can do but that older browsers give up on in despair. The checkpoints are:

• Organise pages so they work without style sheets [Priority 1]
• Update equivalents for dynamic content when the dynamic content changes [Priority 1]
• Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported [Priority 1]
• For scripts and applets, ensure that event handlers are input device-independent [Priority 2]
• Ensure that dynamic content is accessible or provide an alternative presentation or page [Priority 2]

Why the checkpoints are important

Some older browsers or assistive technologies may not support the newest technologies. Also, users may choose to turn features off to speed up download time. For example:

• Style sheets are not consistently supported by different browsers and some browsers don't support them at all
• Some users over-ride the default style sheet to replace it with another, which is more suited to their needs. For example, a user may need larger fonts, or a different colour scheme because this makes reading easier
• Some types of dynamic content, such as audio, video or frames, are not supported by older browsers, text browsers or screen readers. Screen readers struggle with continually updating dynamic content, such as scrolling news tickers. They may also fail to react to frame updates in the same way that they would to a page transition or refresh, which may cause problems
• Users with limited mobility, reading difficulties or poor sight can have problems when content changes continually or automatically refreshes. For example, users with limited mobility may find it difficult to click on moving links and users with poor sight or reading difficulties find it difficult to read moving text
• Many users do not use equipment that is capable of running scripts, applets or other programmatic objects or scripts and applets may be blocked by a firewall
• Users who have slow connections may disable browser features such as video, javascript, audio and so on to make pages load faster