Decide whether your non-text elements are functional, decorative or providing content- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Labels should be added to all non-text content; the alt attribute is a requirement for both HTML 4 and XHTML W3C standards based documents. When trying to decide on the text label required for a particular non-text element, I find it helps to think of them as (roughly) falling into one of three categories: functional, decorative (including layout), or providing content. Functional For functional images, including navigation bars (and horizontal rules) the text should describe the...http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=36 Designing for the Future, and the Training Gap- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Ian Lloyd has been getting a lot of well-deserved attention for his Personal Rant about Standards and Training at Mezzoblue. He asks the question, "How do you encourage unenthusiastic developersmark-up authors to adopt forward-thinking web development methods" He answers his own question by suggesting that what is needed is more training - although he doesn't sound to convinced about what is currently on offer in the training department, "Enforced training is not always gratefully accepted..http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=37 W3C release new beta version of Markup Validation Service- (Found June 24, 2008 ) W3C release new beta version of markup validator: "Welcome to the W3C Markup Validation Service; a free service that checks documents like HTML and XHTML for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards." A very good article from Ian Lloyd: " Attractive, Accessible Web Sites (AKA disproving the myth of ugly) - When you are selling the concept of web accessibility be sure to pick the good-looking sites when demonstrating the possibilities, otherwise you might as well not bother....http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=38 Understanding colour contrast and accessibility- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Colour - in terms of accessibility - is one of the areas I find hardest to understand; I can read a sentence like, 'avoid using colors of similar lightness adjacent to one another, even if they differ in saturation or hue.' (from http:www.lighthouse.orgcolor_contrast.htm) And be as confused after I've read it as I was before. I guess that is because - not having done a course on colour theory - I'm thrown by the jargon. In this weeks tip, I will define the words hue, lightness and...http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=47 If you need help, ask an expert!- (Found June 24, 2008 ) This weeks Accessible web design tip: If you need help, ask an expert! Where do you go when you have a question related to accessible web design If you are like me, you probably spend too much time searching for, and then browsing through the many good accessible web design websites; hoping that one of them will have the answer to your current question. Search no more - this weeks tip is: if you need help, ask an expert. And you can now do that, by visiting a new discussion forum which..http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=46 An interview with Julie Howell, Digital Policy Development Officer for RNIB- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Nigel Peck has published his interview with Julie Howell, "The part of the DDA that effects the provision of services via the web came into effect on 1 October 1999.... " "...Currently RNIB is working on potential cases involving website accessibility on behalf of other blind and partially sighted people under the DDA. We are unable to comment on the details of these potential cases at the moment but may be able to in future. "http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=45 Use HTML attributes, or CSS to set web page colors, but don't use both.- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Here is a useful tip that I found while browsing the Accessibility Internet Rally 2003 Advanced Training website. Use HTML attributes, or CSS to set web page colors, but don't use both. For example, if you set the background colour in a table cell to black using an HTML attribute (e.g. bgcolor="000000"), and used CSS to create contrasting white text (style ="color: FFFFFF") - you will start getting emails from users who surf with style sheets off (or those using browser that don't...http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=44 Meeting Tim Berners Lee, and other superstars- (Found June 24, 2008 ) I attended IT - The Universal Enabler conference a few weeks ago. The conference, at the Guildhall in London, was jointly hosted by the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and the Lord Mayor of London. And speakers included government ministers, 'leading technologists' and 'senior figures from business'. I can only assume I must fit into one of one of those categories. :-) One of the highlights for me was meeting Tim Berners Lee after he spoke at the conference. I didn't manage to..http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=43 Structure your menus by marking them up as lists.- (Found June 24, 2008 ) A navigation menu is - if we are speaking structurally - a list; but it is rare to find a developerdesigner who marks them up as such. I guess the reason for this is that designers don't want to have ugly big bullet points littering their menu's, or seemingly uncontrollable margins throwing out their carefully crafted layouts. So, is it possible to use the correct structural markup, and still make your menus look the way you want them to A recent rash of articles and tools have...http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=42 Use favelets to check validation and accessibility of your web pages.- (Found June 24, 2008 ) This weeks accessible web design tip is to take advantage of the many free favelets available to check validation and accessibility of your web pages. Favelets provide you with a way to run short scripts embedded within bookmarked URLs; the script will act upon the page you currently have in your browser. Scripts are are invoked by choosing the bookmark from you bookmark or favourites menu. This is a powerful feature that you can put to good use when creating and validating your web...http://www.mcu.org.uk/showlog.php?weblogid=41 |