An agent has nothing to process if there's no text on the page.
There are few things less accessible than web applications depending on bleeding edge javascript that might not get successfully executed. There are few things more accessible than text in an HTML web page on an HTML web site. If we really cared about accessibility for the differently abled we wouldn't be making such locked down, proprietary websites. But of course it's not really "we" doing this of our free will. It's corporations and their profit motives telling their human parts to make bad websites. And since that's where the money is in web dev it's become the default for all web devs and even shows up in institutional/government websites.
I don't think corps are going to change and I don't think something other than websites is the answer like the author suggests. We just need actual websites with web pages with text.
evertedsphere•1h ago
> An agent has nothing to process if there's no text on the page
all of the major labs' flagship models are multimodal and the post is specifically about processing the non-text parts of the page
superkuh•1h ago
A good point. I was unclear. I meant it in the sense that if the JS doesn't run fully successfully there won't be text, or images, or even source mark-up. Just some lists of remote JS CDN in source if anything. It'll mostly just be blank. Nothing for the multi-modal to do either.
pverheggen•37m ago
> There are few things less accessible than web applications depending on bleeding edge javascript that might not get successfully executed. There are few things more accessible than text in an HTML web page on an HTML web site.
It's not that simple, you can create highly conformant SPAs if you want, there's just more issues you have to watch out for. And even the best semantic HTML and ARIA will need Javascript for things like content replacement - for example, there are valid accessibility reasons why no one uses form submission for table filtering and sorting anymore. JS is also required for implementing and keyboard interactions for WAI patterns, not something you can get out of the box with plain HTML.
Ultimately, the determining factor for a11y is not your choice of front-end technology, but rather whether you're willing to make it a priority. Janky SPAs sites have not made it one, and I don't think an MPA is going to fix that. Raising the bar on quality is really what's needed.
superkuh•1h ago
There are few things less accessible than web applications depending on bleeding edge javascript that might not get successfully executed. There are few things more accessible than text in an HTML web page on an HTML web site. If we really cared about accessibility for the differently abled we wouldn't be making such locked down, proprietary websites. But of course it's not really "we" doing this of our free will. It's corporations and their profit motives telling their human parts to make bad websites. And since that's where the money is in web dev it's become the default for all web devs and even shows up in institutional/government websites.
I don't think corps are going to change and I don't think something other than websites is the answer like the author suggests. We just need actual websites with web pages with text.
evertedsphere•1h ago
all of the major labs' flagship models are multimodal and the post is specifically about processing the non-text parts of the page
superkuh•1h ago
pverheggen•37m ago
It's not that simple, you can create highly conformant SPAs if you want, there's just more issues you have to watch out for. And even the best semantic HTML and ARIA will need Javascript for things like content replacement - for example, there are valid accessibility reasons why no one uses form submission for table filtering and sorting anymore. JS is also required for implementing and keyboard interactions for WAI patterns, not something you can get out of the box with plain HTML.
Ultimately, the determining factor for a11y is not your choice of front-end technology, but rather whether you're willing to make it a priority. Janky SPAs sites have not made it one, and I don't think an MPA is going to fix that. Raising the bar on quality is really what's needed.