Flashaid

Following on the theme of AJAX, Javascript and accessibility, Jeremy Keith has posted a nice rundown of Flashaid and its origins.

It's a proof of concept idea, whereby you take advantage of the Flash plugin's ability to detect screenreaders (more accurately whether a user is using assistive technology) and use that to substitute for the browser's inability to do similar. It's one of those elegant ideas you wish you'd thought of yourself. By detecting it automatically, you avoid the panic button approach's reliance on the user.

While not a perfect solution, it's another tool that can help make your spangly new AJAXified site available to more people, which can only be a good thing. It does beg the question though - if you're relying on the Flash / Javascript integration, why not just build it as an accessible Flash application?