Accessible UpdatePanel
UpdatePanel is a great way to add Ajax features to an ASP.NET application at a minimal cost. Because it's based on regular postbacks, it also degrades gracefully when JavaScript is not present. But one thing it doesn't do well out of the box - and this is actually the case for any asynchronous update to the DOM - is informing screen readers that new content is present. This article by Bertrand Le Roy and the accompanying code show how to work around that problem and give assistive technology users access to the benefits of Ajax.