Accessibility & Standards

Accessibility for the Rest of Us

June 19, 2007

I recently spent a great deal of time on the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) site, combing through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 working draft. There's a lot of very fine material in that document. Unfortunately, for the average designer it's pretty much, well, inaccessible.

Setting a Decent Table

December 7, 2006

I guess the best way to do this is just to admit it straight out. Okay. Well. So. Recently I... I...

I used a table for layout.

There. I said it. Yes, I know, I know. But it was late. We were behind schedule. It wasn't a whole page or anything. Just a box across the top of the content on one page that would not stay put. I tried everything. I was desperate. I mean, what was I going to tell my boss? That I'd spent an entire day trying to get three lines of text to float to the left of an icon? I was going to tell him that was the latest holdup?

What's Next for the Standardistas?

June 6, 2006

Web standards showcases and galleries are closing right and left.

10 Tips for Making A Web Site Accessible

April 13, 2006

Most of these are fairly quick and easy steps you can take to increase the accessibility of your web site. Keep in mind that these are just a sample of accessibility recommendations. The resources below offer much more extensive information.

Accessibility: No Longer an Option

February 19, 2006

When I look around the web, I'm astonished at the number of web sites that make little or no effort to comply with web standards or accessibility guidelines. And some of these folks...well, you can't help but think they ought to know better. For instance, this week it was announced that Target is being sued for violating the California Disabled Persons Act because its web site isn't accessible to visually impaired customers. You've got to wonder if this was much of a surprise to them. Is there anyone familiar with the web who didn't think lawsuits weren't coming? I'm just amazed it took this long.

10 Signs You May Have Webular Standarditis

May 22, 2005
  1. You suffer night sweats and heart palpitations after dreaming you are being chased by swarms of angry divs.
  2. You refer to colleagues as Strict, Transitional, and the Future Unemployed.
  3. When blowing out your birthday candles, you wish first for your site to validate, second for world peace.
  4. You experience guilt and remorse after using three break tags on one page.