static grid
use a static grid and deactivate the dynamic grid coming with the axis
HTML
<script src="http://jsxgraph.uni-bayreuth.de/distrib/jsxgraphcore.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://jsxgraph.uni-bayreuth.de/distrib/jsxgraph.css">
<div id="jxgbox" style="width: 350px; height: 500px;"></div>
JavaScript
// deactivate dynamic grid, i.e. set height of the major ticks to 20px instead of the whole board
JXG.Options.axis.ticks.majorHeight = -1;
JXG.Options.axis.ticks.insertTicks = 1;
JXG.Options.axis.ticks.ticksDistance = 0.5;
var board = JXG.JSXGraph.initBoard('jxgbox', {boundingbox: [-5, 5, 5, -5], grid: false, axis: true, keepaspectratio: true});
var p = board.create('point', [1, 1]);