Really Dynamic Webpages

Web designers have begun to pick up on a fun technique to update sections of a web page in real time. This update gets done without redrawing and reloading the whole page. See — XMLHttpRequest for The Masses” href=”http://allinthehead.com/retro/241/xmlhttprequest-for-the-masses”>XMLHttpRequest for The Masses for a discussion of what’s happening.

Pretty cool, but the question I have is whether or not this will work with screenreaders used by blind folks. If it doesn’t, then the use of XMLHttpRequest in this way may not meet the Section 508 accessability requirements which would mean it might be a no-no for U.S. Federal Goverment web sites. If the screen readers can’t recognize changed text embedded in a web page, then it might be difficult to use this technique in a valid way.