Testing with JavaScript disabled

Ben Logan - Published: 23rd Feb 2009 11:45 GMT

Web sites have been making use of JavaScript for many years, but in the last 18 months, and in particular the rise of the "Social Networking" and "Web 2.0", JavaScript has started to play a major role in many Web sites.

Have you considered the experience users will have on your web site if JavaScript is disabled?

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development. It was the originating dialect of the ECMAScript standard. JavaScript, despite the name, is essentially unrelated to the Java programming language, although both have the common C syntax, and JavaScript copies many Java names and naming conventions.

What is JavaScript used for?

We often find JavaScript is used for the following:

• Client/browser statistics reporting
• Click tracking
• AJAX, anything "load-on-demand"
• Manipulating the DOM
• Calculators
• Sniffing for plugins
• Form validation
• Other DHTML effects

Why test with JavaScript disabled?

Not everyone surfs the web with JavaScript enabled. This could be a user browsing through Lynx text only browser, a mobile user with a browser that does not have JavaScript enabled by default, or a corporate network that strips out JavaScript files from web sites.

What is AJAX?

AJAX is not a new concept and has been around on the web for a while and simply combines the use of several technologies to allows a "behind the scenes" interaction with the server to update portions of the page rather than the traditional Web model of round trips to the server and reloading the entire page for each action.

What are the issues with some sites that use AJAX extensively?

We often find in our testing sessions with screen readers:

• No standard means by which to let them know that the content has changed
• They don't know where the change is on the page
• They may not remember what used to be there before the content changed
• They don't know if it is worth the effort of looking for the updated content, especially if it changes regularly
• Scripts are not device independent e.g. rely on Mouse Events

Want to test your site with JavaScript disabled?

If you are testing the site through Internet Explorer you can do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Select Tools > Internet Options.
3. In Internet Options dialog box select the Security tab.
4. Click Custom Level button at bottom. The Security Settings dialog box will pop up.
5. Under the Scripting category, enable/disable Active Scripting, Allow paste options via script and Scripting of Java applets.
6. Click OK twice to close out.
7. Click Refresh.

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