Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) offer new levels of user interactivity through a Web browser. By combining semantics, style and behavior it is possible to create a RIA that can rival a traditional desktop application. Unfortunately, much of the information exposed through RIAs via dynamic Document Object Model (DOM) updates is not accessible. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative — Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) specification presents a solution for making these applications accessible through adding additional semantics to HTML. WAI-ARIA live regions are introduced as a technique to expose dynamic DOM updates to Assistive Technologies (AT). A live region use case, eBuddy Instant Messenger (IM), is presented as well as a tally queue to help aid a user in filtering trivial information announcements.
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