456 Berea Street is linking to a great discussion on accessibility.
But I am going to take this opportunity to re-inforce what I believe is the nature of our professionalism. We should make an effort to create accessible content, because it’s part of our job. And frankly, it doesn’t take much effort; it’s not difficult. - John “brothercake” Edwards
Nicely written, and to the point. Accessibility is the job. A lot of our clients and employers can miss the point. We aren’t making these sites for them. They know the content, they don’t need the site for that. We’re making the site for their clients, for whom accessibility may be an issue. When we worry about accessibility, we aren’t being picky, we’re doing our job.
I’ve started using a great functional accessibility evaluator lately. A superb tool for testing and fixing accessibility issues on websites. A very powerful tool. Register for a free account and it gets even better.
The restructuring of the VTTI website is complete. They didn’t want a redesign in the traditional sense, they wanted to update and improve what they had. I’ve updated the colors and textures, as well as improving the quality of HTML and CSS. The end result is a site with a simpler color palette, and improved overall functionality. The load time is down, and the design is now consistent across browsers and platforms. As a side benefit, it’s also much easier to maintain and expand.
More screen-shots are available if you’re interested. As you can see, it ended up looking a somewhat like the Alumni Association site, but that’s not a big surprise. The goal with VTTI, like the Alumni Association, was to put together a site that met the University’s requirements, without using their templates. They both wanted a site that was identifiably Virginia Tech, but was a little unique as well. Variations on a theme, rather than an exact match.
I was putting together a list of resources that I regularly use for someone, and I thought it might be helpful for someone else.
Firefox Resources
- Web Developer - I use this for all purpose testing. Extremely helpful when checking CSS, but also good with images, forms, and other HTML elements.
- Firefox Accessibility Extension - I use this for evaluating 508 compliance on web sites and other HTML documents
- IE View - Lets you switch from Firefox to IE in a click. No need to find the page again in IE, just open your current Firefox page in IE.
- FoxView Let’s you open your current IE page in Firefox
- OperaViewOpens your current Firefox page in Opera
- IE TabOpens IE within a Firefox tab
- LinkChecker - Name says it all
- MeasureIt For finding dimensions of online content or space
- ColorZilla - Find the exact color you’re seeing in the browser.
- HTML Validator - A great validation tool for testing web pages.
- Fangs Screen Reader Emulator - Emulates a screen reader for testing 508 compliance and other usability factors.
- Split Browser - Open two pages in the same window.
- FireShot - A superb screenshot tool.
- Other hepful, non-design related extensions
Resources for Internet Explorer
Opera Browser - A resource all by itself. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s another high quality browser that’s useful to test pages in.
POSH - Plain Old Semantic HTML
POSH, in case you haven’t heard of it already, is short for “Plain Old Semantic HTML”, and is obviously much quicker and easier to say than “valid, semantic, accessible, well-structured HTML”. Unfortunately POSH -semantic markup - is also something most people building websites or creating content for the Web have yet to discover.
It’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one that sees quality semantic HTML as a viable web design solution. There are flashier solutions, but well written HTML with good CSS is hard to beat from a reliability point of view. When it comes to web solutions that are 508 compliant, there’s nothing better.
I love trying new things, using new technology, but there are places for that. For instance, newer technology can be incorporated into an otherwise POSH site. It’s not necessary to completely throw your site into the every new technology that comes along.
One trend in recent years has been to make all Flash sites. Nothing wrong with Flash, it has some impressive potential, but a lot of the flash sites I see have very low usability. They’re pretty, they’re creative, some of them I’d consider works of art. They’re not however, a viable alternative to most of the work I do.
Usability and 508 compliance may not be exciting, but when a client or employer wants it, the best course of action is to make it POSH.
World Wide Web - Lawsuit Hits Target for Web Usability
A federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit alleging that Target Corp. is breaking California and federal law by failing to make its Web site usable for the blind.
Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. It’s been law for a few years now, it was just a matter of time before someone sued.
Victor Tsaran: Introduction to Screen Readers
“demonstrates how he uses them to explore and understand web sites, how sites are “linearized”, and how using semantic markup to build sites supports accessible navigation and usability”
This technology is often misunderstood by both designers and their clients, so I think this would be a very useful video on for just about anyone who spends time online.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of 508 compliance work lately, and I recently I found a very good tutorial by Jim Thatcher on the subject. His definitions and explanations are much clearer than others I’ve seen.
