March 12, 2004
Accessibility and Search Engines - A Marriage Made in Heaven
I’ve long said to people when explaining the benefits of an accessible web site that it can really *really* improve your placings in search results. Sometimes people get it, sometimes it falls on deaf ears. I’d considered writing an article just on this matter but old mother time got the better of me. Thankfully, Brendan Olejniczak has written an article covering just this topic over at Digital Web entitled Optimizing Your Chances with Accessibility. Go check it out then add it to your armoury for the next time someone asks you “Why should I bother with this accessibility stuff?”.
The Mark of Accessibility at IBM
For those who haven’t yet heard, there’s some great news for anyone with a need for accessibility-friendly software - Mark Pilgrim has joined IBM as an ‘Accessibility Architect in the Emerging Technologies group’. Mark says that his role is not only web-related, but even so, it has to be a good thing to have someone as switched on about the topic in a role that has the word Accessibility in the job title (rather than the usual scenario where someone with an interest in the topic has to try to influence without having the necessary clout to back it up).
Congratulations Mark.
Off Topic: Lost in Translation
No, this has nothing to do with the film but more to do with a recent piece I wrote for A List Apart about Error 404 pages which has been translated into Italian. What has this got to do with Accessibility? Not much, really, but I thought it might be useful to somebody out there and without a link it could just be lost in the mists. Buonjiorno tutti!
March 7, 2004
JavaScript and Accessibilty? An Oxymoron, Surely?
Perhaps not, as Jim Byrne mulls in his article/weekly tip entitled ‘Use Javascript to add default text to input fields‘.
For as long as I can remember I’ve puzzled over whether or not to put in default characters in edit boxes and text areas in my web forms. On the one hand if I don’t my page will not will not pass Guideline 10.4, and will have no chance of WAI AAA compliance. Guideline 10.4 exists to ensure visitors using some older screen readers (which don’t recognize empty form fields) - can fill in web forms.
Party Time Serious Networking Opportunity in SXSW
While I might be in Australia right now, I won’t be next week - I’m making a tortuous journey (three flights from Sydney to San Fran to Denver then Austin) just to be at the conference, and on Saturday night I’ll be at the CSS-Discuss/Web Design-L and WaSP gathering (venue yet to be decided, but close to the conference centre). If you are going to attend, I look forward to seeing you there through my beer goggles and jet lag.
Get Involved With Web Standards
The fact that you are reading this page suggests that you do, to some extent, support the notion of developing to recognised web standards, or you know other people who do. But how can you do your bit to support it more actively?
While undertaking a round-the-world trip, I’ve been trying to call in on people who are of a similar mindset and the other day I ‘did lunch’ with a bunch of people involved with (as in running) the Web Standards Group down in Sydney, Australia. However, the group is not just about Aussie web developers - you can join in the group too.
In case you might be thinking “Hang on, that’s WaSP by another name, isn’t it?”, that’s not quite the case. As Russ Weakley put it: “We see it like this: you have the W3C setting the standards/recommendations, WaSP doing the political/pressure group thing and the WSG letting the developers get together - albeit virtually - to discuss how they do it.” They also have get-togethers in Sydney, where the founder members are based, every six weeks, so if you are in the area why not join in meet some other like-minded developers? And if you’re not in the area, why not join up anyway and contribute by email?
Update: I received this note from a member shortly after posting:
Regarding your post about the Web Standards Group, there is actually also a Melbourne group which is having its first meeting on Monday March 8. Co-chairs Russ and Peter are flying down for it and John Alssop is speaking.
Details of the first meeting can be found here
March 5, 2004
RNIB(UK) Campaign for Good Web Design
A presentation on Web Accessibility is now available from the RNIB:
On 4 March 2004, Julie Howell, Digital Policy Development Officer at RNIB gave an online presentation about RNIB’s Campaign for Good Web Design on behalf of EASI, a provider of online training on accessible AT in the USA.
The presentation is available online at http://easi.cc/archive/rnib/rnib.htm.
January 29, 2004
Accessify In Shortlist for SXSW Web Awards
It gives me great pleasure in breaking my posting drought to announce that
Accessify’s Tools & Wizards
page (home of such tools as the List-O-Matic,
Acrobot and other accessibility
related tools) is in the shortlist for this year’s web awards at the South by
South West Web Awards. It’ll be in great company (as
the other shortlisted sites show) and I’m personally very pleased that it
got as far as this (I certainly didn’t expect it to).
The problem I have now is that I feel duty-bound to go along and attend, which
is no easy thing as I recently took a career break and am currently
on the other side of the world watching the budget very carefully! If anyone
can help me with this predicament, I’d love to hear from you. Ah, so here’s
where the begging bowl gets reeled out …
If you would be willing to sponsor my trip from Sydney (where I expect to be
by early March) to Austin Texas, I could do the following:
- Add a company logo/credit and link back on the Tools
& Wizards page (anyone visiting SXSW’s nominations list will be pointed
to this page). This is not the same as the standard footer text that is on
Accessify’s pages - it will be more prominent than this.
- Mention to anyone I meet personally how gracious you’ve been by helping
me to be there.
- If the site wins, I will ensure that the sponsor gets a mention in the acceptance
speech and on the post-event video that they shoot with the winning entries
Note that this page will be getting significantly higher visits as a result
of the award nomination and sponsoring this page will offer greater exposure
for anyone willing to help out. Please also note that I would prefer any potential
sponsor to be an Internet-related business (web design/hosting/consultancy/development
etc); it also make most sense to the sponsor, as it will be primarily web professionals
who will be visiting this page from SXSW’s site.
If you are interested in helping me, or if you would like to find out more
information, please drop me a line using the contact
us page.
January 23, 2004
The Rolling Rampage
Dave Shea passed me a link to Rolling Rampage, the site is a great example of the use of Web Standards for a very sexy looking site. I’m not convinced on the Accessibility due to the text being difficult to read, and thought twice before posting about it, but I figured it would be a good idea to let you have your say in the forum.
January 21, 2004
Partner Projects
Don’t forget to check out what’s happening with the projects that are currently partnered with Accessify Forum:
WaiZilla
The first open source project aimed at producing a cross platform web-site accessibility testing tool. Links:
AccessibleNet.org
More Accessibility related links than you can shake a stick at. Links:
The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS)
It’s a gulid for accessible web designers, that’s probably you, so join it! See the following links for more information:
