javascript - Load local image into canvas without using file API

Question

I am creating a javascript application that is communicating with a REST web server, to add an image I have to convert it to base64. To convert the image to base64 I was going to use canvas toDataUrl() but to load a local file I need to use the File API which is not that well supported (I need to support at least IE9). Is there a way how I can achieve this without using the file API and without using the server?