Day One:
\nDue to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to attend the
\nmorning presentations. The one I most missed was Molly Holschlag\u2019s.
\nThe rest of the sessions I attended I have made notes of, below:<\/p>\n
Dan Cederholm<\/b>
\nis as entertaining as ever, making the audience laugh about
\nTYPOGRAPHY and design through his \u2018toupeepal\u2019 example site.
\nHe takes a four-colour palette from an image he likes, a light and a
\ndark brown, a blue, and very dark grey. He uses lighter shades of these
\nbasic colours, too. The link colour is one of the colours of the
\npalette, and \u201ccarries weight\u201d. Typography he believes is very important
\n\u2013 and often \u2018invisible\u2019 e.g. an article \u201cWeb Design is 95% typography\u201d.
\nTypefaces is not the same as typography \u2013 we have a few and this is
\nplenty, the typography is the art of using those fonts. AIGA website
\ngood example \u2013 two core fonts \u2013 Verdana (mostly) and Georgia (headings
\nonly). Letter-spacing, italicising, etc.
\n\u2022\tGeorgia – Letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: upper-case;
\nlooks good.
\nHe recommends a book \u201cThe Elements of Typographic Style\u201d and shows an example – Ampersands in a different font
\n\u2022\tSpan.amp \u2013 font-size 110% font-family:\u201dGoudy Old Style\u201d \u201cPalatino\u201d \u201cBook Antiqua\u201d, \u201cGeorgia\u201d;
\nThe website of the book is Webtypography.net
\nHe talks about Favicons \u2013 \u201cthe most important design element of an site\u201d?
\nScale down to 16×16 or focus on fragment
\nProgram called \u201cIconographer\u201d also photoshop plug-in
\nDelta-Tango-Bravo website for inspiration \u2013 smashing magazine has a gallery too.
\nHis next topic is ADD DETAIL WITHOUT ADDING COMPLEXITY
\n2px gradient shadow background-repeat drop-shadow on search box example.
\nsuggestion of a container with the background image gradient instead
\nof border. Rounded corners on one corner rather than all four.
\nAn important part of all this seems to be an urge to RECYCLE – to
\nReuse and recycle elements of the design
\nHis closing topic is MICROFORMATS \u2013 SEMANTIC MARKUP \u2013 can be parsed with SPARKL and GRIDDL
\nBrief description at Microformats.org\/about \u2013 essentially semantic code snippets to use on a site, for example:
\nhCard \u2013 Microformat for marking up contact information.
\nTechnorati.com service turns hCard into vCard format on the fly \u2013 the
\ntechnorati link is in the microformat. There are Dreamweaver
\nextensions, and Microformats.org\/code\/hcard\/creator will make one for
\nyou
\nAllinthehead.com\/retro\/301\/can-your-website-be-you-api
\nCode snippets to use on your site \u2013 use more than one kind and use lots
\nof iterations of them and they can be played with in different ways.
\nhReview \u2013 for reviews of things, descriptions of things?<\/p>\n
The presentation slides are here<\/a><\/p>\n Joe Clark \u2013 When Accessibility is not your problem<\/b><\/p>\n Joe began with his usual fun taking photos of the audience, and then showed us some photos of Islington in Toronto. Joe is also working on the Open and Closed Project \u2013 to develop a set of All slides are at joeclark.org\/media7<\/p>\n Joe invited everyone in the hall to make the following pledge: Moving on to specifics, Joe described the following issues to which the pledge applies.<\/p>\n Font-Size Link Text and Headings. abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms Cognitive disabilities. This was a very interesting talk from Joe, and I am glad to have been After the first Day.<\/b><\/p>\n Joe Clark gave Patrick Lauke several plaudits during his talk \u2013 A browser is a piece of software used to access webpages – for example I have, incidentally, had a discussion very recently with {another The sort of text-size adjustment facility being discussed in the I hope these remarks are useful to you.<\/p>\n best wishes I shall post the outcome here in due course.<\/p>\n Following Joe\u2019s talk, at the end of the first day, outside the Business It was good to meet up with people who I had shared drinks and dinner Very tired after the previous night and a long day, I did not, this Day Two:<\/b> Hannah Donovan and Simon Willison \u2013 For Example\u2026.<\/b> Hannah of Last.fm began Simon Willison, Lawrence.com \u2013 Doing Local Right. Small passionate team \u2013 someone else to think about the money \u2013 intern power \u2013 treat your data with respect. It was developed at the newspaper and now available for free.<\/p>\n \nShawn Lawton Henry \u2013 Advancing Web Accessibility.<\/b> Milestones \u2013 all public \u2013 drafts etc meeting minutes etc Developing accessible websites. WCAG 1.0 -> guidelines and checkpoints Motivation behind WCAG 2 \u2013 success criteria are \u2018testable statements\u2019 \u2013 easier to tell whether a webpage passes or not. WCAG 2 is intended to last for a long time and be a solid foundation. Needs to be technology neutral and flexible. Scripting. WCAG 2 Documents Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines \u2013 MySpace is an authoring tool just like Dreamweaver, etc. Advancing Web Accessibility Shawn basically gave us a quick walk-through from a very positivist \nAndy Clarke \u2013 Royale with Cheese.<\/b><\/p>\n Andy opens with a clip from Pulp Fiction from which the Royale with Cheese quote is taken. \u201cI hope that British web designers can escape from the smothering Is there cultural diversity, or a bland globalised uniformity? HOFSTEDER As a web designer one works in a way that can reach a global audience. He amuses us with his knowledge of Russian \u2013 the words for border-guard and for ice-cream. They\u2019re the two words he knows. Low Hanging Fruit: Andy Emailed about 400 web designers to guage opinion on these issues. Does your country have a distinctive style? Amazon model for ecommerce \u2013 should we assume it is correct? No, says Andy.<\/p>\n He also asked if designers looked at local culture. He challenges even Do web designers in your country look to the wider web for inspiration? \u201ca single universally appealing global site does not appear feasible\u201d 2001 quote. CULTURABILITY \u2013 conbination of culture and useability affecting personal local and regional user-friendliness of web designs.<\/p>\n Andy feels we need to re-evaluate what we\u2019re doing. It\u2019s not going to Culturalisation: to design a web site or application that encompasses regional variations at a regional level. Perhaps what we should be doing is involving local\/regional designers in Slides at www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk\/events\/<\/p>\n This is about BRAND Hot Topics.<\/b><\/p>\n Joe Clark, Dan Cederholm, Richard Ishida (W3C), Jeremy Keith, and Drew McLellan (WaSPs).<\/p>\n W3C chat With WHATWG and criticisms of WAI is W3C as important as before? Richard invites suggestions to the W3C. Joe complains: To post a proper Site redesigns. Document-based vs application-based web. Most inspirational article, presentation or book? Educational Institutions \u2013 a lost cause \/ should everyone be self-taught? One member of the audience \u2013 a web developer who has worked in Conventions of design trends \u2013 are they crutches? Ajax Environmental impact of what we\u2019re doing. \u201crich\u201d implies \u201cpoor\u201d in Rich Internet Applications \u2013 not that rich an experience.<\/p>\n In the end, Jeremy Keith in particular got quite boring. There seemed Panel didn\u2019t like silverlight or other attempts at \u201crich\u201d applications \u2013 good design is better.<\/p>\n Joe concluded that as a sarcastic gay vegan he can no longer make a @media 2005 was excellent \u2013 a real wake-up that so many of us existed \u2013 @media 2006 was bigger, broader, pitched better, but somehow less The lesson of course is that the things that arise from contacts and meetings at conferences only rarely come to anything\u2026<\/p>\n Let\u2019s see what @media 2007 is like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Day One: Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to attend the morning presentations. The one I most missed was Molly Holschlag\u2019s. The rest of the sessions I attended I have made notes of, below: Dan Cederholm is as entertaining as ever, making the audience laugh about TYPOGRAPHY and design through his \u2018toupeepal\u2019 … Continue reading “@media2007”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-default"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHis main announcement is that the work of the WCAG Samurai<\/a>
\nis now ready for us to view. The WCAG Samurai were modelled after the
\nCSS Samurai, and were a secret cadre of developers who were tasked with
\ndeveloping a sensible set of errata to the WCAG 1.0 guidelines. These
\nerrata are available to view at wcagsamurai.org as of 7th June 2007 \u2013
\ntoday. The \u2018secret cadre\u2019 approach, or closed process, was adopted
\nbecause of its necessary contrast with the Open process at the W3C. The
\nopen process at W3C was not working and was filled with corporations.
\nJoe was expelled from the process because of his complaints! The
\ncorrections\/errata worked out by the WCAG Samurai are NOT WCAG 2.0, but
\ncorrections to WCAG 1.0.
\nIt is only a trial run available as of 7th June. The final version,
\nfollowing feedback, is to be published in three weeks time. The errata
\nhave already been Peer Reviewed.
\n\u2022\t1. Jean Sampson-Wild has reviewed it \u2013 samuraireview.wordpress.com
\n\u2022\tThe Samurai didn\u2019t know this was happening and she doesn\u2019t know the Samurai.
\n\u2022\t2. Alistair Campbell has also reviewed it \u2013 reviewsamurai.wordpress.com
\n\u2022\tThe two reviewers did not know there were two reviewers<\/p>\n
\n(user-tested) standards for captioning and subtitling,
\naudio-description and dubbing. He has been supported by the
\nmicropatronage project since nov 06 \u2013 donations made by interested
\nparties, including myself.<\/p>\n
\nIf a browser or assistive technology can handle an accessibility problem, I won\u2019t
\nI gladly take this pledge.<\/p>\n
\nUse of \u2018px\u2019 is not a problem. Browsers can expand this.
\nOpera page-zoom overcomes text-on-image pixellation, and is better than
\nIE7 page-zoom. As for Font resizing \u2013 browsers should have buttons for
\nfont-size rather than hiding this in the menu. First-run splash screens
\n(that are easy to return to) for browsers should have such things to
\nset defaults. The browser should remember your textsize preferences for
\neach page.
\nIn short, Font size is a browser problem \u2013 don\u2019t create font resize options for your website.<\/p>\n
\nH1->H2->H3 order is important, and should not be interchangeable \u2013 this is a paradox in the current guidelines.
\nAlso, despite Guidelines, the same link text going to different URLs is VALID in many cases.
\nGathering the links at the bottom of the page is also attacked by Joe,
\non grounds that properly coded menus are already accessible.
\nIn short, accessibility requires you write a well-structured document with a logical tab order.
\nWith respect to the title attribute, this is permitted, not required.
\nThe face that some browser and screen-reader manufacturers have made
\nsoftware that can\u2019t read them is \u2018not your problem\u2019.
\nLinks to anything other than web pages should be really explicit \u2013 for example PDFs.
\nJoe uses a title attribute to describe the link to the PDF, and uses \u201cPDF\u201d inside the link text.
\n\u2022\tdocument.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJoe gives a great number of examples of acronyms and abbreviations that
\nare simply beyond the ability of HTML markup \u2013 and of acronyms like i.e.
\nor e.g. and q.e.d. that are fossilised and for which the expansion (in
\nanother language) would actually confuse the issue.
\nScreen readers should be including acronym and exception dictionaries
\nproperly, to recognise words better. Screen readers are poor at
\nrecognising holographs [\u2013 e.g. read [reed] or read [red] \u2013] where
\npronunciation depends on context. Why should it be our problem to fix
\nthe failings of the screen reader software makers? Exception
\ndictionaries in screen readers should be much better than they are.
\nE.g. \u201cST. GEORGE ST.\u201d on a sign, or \u201cSt. George St\u201d, or Italian \u2013 SpA
\nMAC OS X has a built-in screen reader but with a totally inadequate exeption dictionary.
\nIn sum, Joe recommends we should use abbr and acronym without expansion
\nas well as with \u2013 in his experience the abbr is expanded more often than
\nthe acronym, but only roughly two thirds of each includes an expansion.
\nWe should only specify expansions if a reasonable reader would not
\nunderstand them (this is obviously context sensitive \u2013 the reasonable
\nreader of the site we are making).<\/p>\n
\nThere is one Guideline for this – Checkpoint 14.1 \u2013 Use clear and simple
\nlanguage appropriate for a site\u2019s content. The last phrase
\n(emphasised) is very important.
\nEvery site on the web CANNOT be written clearly and simply \u2013 it was originally created for discussions between physicists!
\nSpecialist information cannot be made accessible to people with coginitive disabilities\u2026
\nThe information can be made accessible, with a podcast, tape, pictures etc etc, but not the webpage.
\nJoe states that \u201cPersonal blogs are inapplicable to accessibility for cognitive disabilities.\u201d
\nSo when are they applicable? Official or company blogs should comply.
\n[The one official blog.] From Government sites to private sector
\nofficial sites. Mapping or directions sites should be accessible to
\npeople with cognitive disabilities. Sites providing services that would
\nbe of use to people with cognitive disabilities (not necessarily
\ntargeted at them) should be accessible.
\nThere are custom screen readers for people with learning disabilities. Reading Machine \u2013 Curzwell Educational Systems.<\/p>\n
\nhere to witness the announcement of the results of the work of the WCAG
\nSamurai.
\nAsked for my opinion, by someone sitting next to me, as the audience
\nbroke to leave the hall, my immediate reaction was to say, well, all
\nthis was common sense, things I had instinctively been implementing
\nmyself for a while now, but which it was nice to hear someone of Joe
\nClark\u2019s stature to state publicly at an event such as this.<\/p>\n
\nincluding a mention for his argument, on his blog, against the use of
\nfont-size switching tools available on many websites. Patrick, as well
\nas Co-Lead of Accessibility Task Force for the Web Standards Project, is
\nwebmaster at University of Salford where I am Lecturer in Information
\nSystems, and a colleague I have had many meetings and (both verbal and
\nemail) conversations with. He and I have, in fact, had a number of
\nconversations on this very topic, in particular when members of the
\nEquality & Diversity department at the University asked him to put
\nsuch a tool on the University website. He refused, and the E&Q
\npeople turned to me for my opinion. I did not hesitate to support
\nPatrick on the issue, with a clear explanation, as below:
\n————————————————————
\nDear Jonathon
\nThanks for getting in touch. My instinct here is to support Patrick on
\nthis issue. Patrick is a very highly respected web accessibility
\npractitioner with international connections and esteem, and has in fact
\nhad discussions with me regarding the ESF project<\/a> that Peter Wheeler and I are working on. The Salford Uni website is very accessible, from a coder’s point of view.<\/p>\n
\nInternet Explorer – and simple things like the use of the Back button to
\nreturn to a previous page, or View->Text Size->Larger are things
\nthat the user of such a piece of software should be aware of and know
\nhow to use. The onus is on the web developer to ensure that text is
\nsized in a relative and not an absolute way, to ensure that the
\nbrowser’s textsize control will work on the webpage.<\/p>\n
\nE&Q officer} on closely related issues, and an element of
\nfirst-years’ induction that included basic training in how to use a
\nbrowser for accessibility came up in conversation. There are, for
\nexample, a number of simple steps that can greatly improve dyslexic
\nstudents’ ability to read webpages when they have been coded accessibly,
\nas Patrick’s pages are, but which the student needs to understand how
\nto apply.<\/p>\n
\ncorrespondence is used by some websites keen to make a ‘show’ of their
\naccessibility. This is more a matter of public relations policy than of
\nmaking the website more accessible. In the Big Chip Awards<\/a>
\n– the annual industry competition for Manchester’s Digital sector, for
\nwhich I am one of the Judging Panel – we have had, for a number of
\nyears, a Web Accessibility Award. This year, we have dropped this
\naward, in favour of refusing to shortlist any submission that is not
\naccessible. This reflects a trend in the industry away from
\nhighlighting accessibility towards assuming it as a given.<\/p>\n
\nDavid Kreps
\n——————————————————–<\/p>\n
\nDesign Centre, I bumped into and \u2018caught up with\u2019 both Andy Clarke and
\nAndy Budd, and Gez Lemon (who I met through Patrick Lauke at a
\nManchester Digital Accessibility Working Group meeting, whose company
\nwere invited to tender for the eDiscrimination website – when it became
\nclear that Patrick wasn\u2019t going to have time to do it – but from whom
\n[for whatever reason] I didn\u2019t receive a proposal in the end. Fluid
\nCreativity, a Manchester company that won the BigChip Web Standards and
\nAccessibility Award in 2006, eventually won the contract). <\/p>\n
\nwith in previous years. Andy Clarke no doubt remembered me in
\nparticular in connection with university web standards education, of
\ncourse. Andy Budd and I did not mention the failed book. Chris, the A
\nPress publisher, does not seem to be here this year, which is perhaps a
\ngood thing.<\/p>\n
\nyear, join in the end of first day drinking session, but went back to my
\nclub (a marvellous place to stay when in town) for dinner and an early
\nnight.<\/p>\n
\nJon Hicks \u2013 How to be a Creative Sponge.<\/b>
\nJon is designers\u2019 designer. He admonished us to collect things \u2013 they
\nmay be relevant later on! Things include books, magazines, carcboard
\npackets etc etc \u2013 good examples of typography.
\n\u201cWeb is not print\u201d he reminded us, but although this is true but there
\nis a great deal we can learn from magazines etc about layout, grid,
\ncolour schemes and typography. There is also found typography \u2013 signs
\nin the street \u2013 take a photograph and keep the idea.
\nThere is a temptation when designing a website to look at other websites
\nfor inspiration. This is not necessarily the right approach.
\nMoodboards are a useful way of bringing all stakeholders on board.
\n\u2022\tConcentrates on the concept\/mood
\n\u2022\tStimulates conversation
\n\u2022\tQuick to make
\n\u2022\tSome clients can make their own.
\nIn sum, his message was reuse, recycle, but don\u2019t reinvent the wheel
\nunless necessary! Soak up everything \u2013 you never know when you\u2019re going
\nto need it.
\nSlides are at here<\/a>.
\nLinks he mentioned are at Del.icio.us\/jonhicks\/sponge<\/p>\n
\nThe makers of last.fm and Lawrence.com<\/p>\n
\nSuccess \u2013 doing what works \u2013 find out what works and do it consistently.
\nProcess \u2013 errors. Without a lot of failure you don\u2019t get there in the end.
\n1. Get your idea out \u2013 put perfection behind you!
\nIf you don\u2019t, someone else is going to do it. If you\u2019re thinking about
\nputting a product out, put it out now and improve it as you go.
\nMyspace \u2013 \u201cthis website is shit\u201d \u2013 very popular statement \u2013 but they did
\nsomething right \u2013 the fastest most internationally recognized way to
\nbuild a homepage. Pretty revolutionary at the time. What they\u2019ve got
\nwrong is that it has not got better!
\n\u201cNot everything worth doing is worth doing well.\u201d Tom West.
\nThen go back ad revise and work on iterations.
\nShe attacks \u201cskin\u201d and \u201cstyling\u201d \u2013 these terms are getting in the way.
\nComes from CSS. She admonishes us: Do not apply a skin or styling to a
\nproduct after the functionality.
\nForm follows function!!! – actually \u2013 Form ever follows function.
\nSullivan (an architect) \u2013 first skyscraper \u2013 steel structure then
\nwrapped with walls \u2013 built together to be one. She shows a photo of it.
\nDesign and development should go hand in hand.
\n2. Don\u2019t release new visuals without new functionality.
\nNew design is accepted if new functionality is included and exposed. Make it explicit what is going on, and give users choice.
\n3. Designers and developers work on the same team. \u2013 towards the same
\ngoal! SCRUM practice \u2013 5minute stand-up meeting every morning \u2013 makes a
\nworld of difference, part of AGILE development practice. Divide up
\ninto little teams doing little bits, put them together and get the first
\niteration of the product out.
\n4. Do the hard stuff first. Use iterations.
\nScaleable and helpful.
\nInternationalisation. Forces bigger releases and log-jams. English site
\nbecame first, all others second \u2013 one iteration behind. Trying to fix \u2013
\nmake the delay only 7 days.
\nir8n
\n5. Use broad brushstrokes.
\nDo the big stuff first and then fine tune as you go along.
\nShe offered beta access over summer 07 \u2013 write to Hannah@last.fm<\/p>\n
\nSimonwillison.net
\n\u201clocal\u201d \u2013 a major strategic thing for Yahoo etc etc \u2013 although the web is world wide everybody lives somewhere!
\nIn the main, local search \u201csucks\u201d \u2013 not comprehensive, accurate or up to date. Local flavour matters!
\nYou can\u2019t solve local problems on a global scale.
\nThe decline of news. Craigslist destroying classified ad revenue,
\nundermining main revenue source for newspapers. Newspaper owns printing
\npress \u2013 a local monopoly. Business model undermined by the web. Old
\nmedia blames new media.
\nGood local sites need local knowledge.
\nLawrence, Kansas did this very well \u2013 Simon worked for them 3 years ago
\nand thinks it\u2019s the best in the world. Event listings, local blogs by
\nlocal citizens, full calendar, etc etc. LJworld.com another example.<\/p>\n
\nRelational databases \u2013 huge amounts of data \u2013 very important to respect
\nit and take the time to properly represent it in tables\u2026 make the data
\ndetailed and useful. Django \u2013 an opensource web framework. Optimised
\nfor building content-heavy database backed sites. Ellington is the CMS
\nbuilt with django that is available commercially for other newspapers.
\nDjango assumes you are building stuff from scratch. <\/p>\n
\nTimes have changed a lot since WCAG 1.0 in 1999.
\nTalk about WCAG 2.0
\nShortcuts for getting into it.
\nWAI \u2013 several groups \u2013
\n\u2022\tprotocols and formats working group
\n\u2022\tevaluation and repair tools group
\n\u2022\tresearch and development interest group
\nProcess \u2013 recommendations etc<\/p>\n
\nPublic Working Draft periodically released for feedback. WCAG 2.0 has
\nbeen through several. Last Call Working draft out last year.
\nSubstantive changes put it back \u2013 May 17th 07 new Working Draft. No
\ntelling when it will be finished \u2013 not before 2008.
\n\u201cHow WAI Develops Guidelines\u201d document available.<\/p>\n
\n1. Understanding accessibility issues \u2013 not just a checklist of guidelines
\n\u2022\tHow People with Disabilities Use the Web
\n\u2022\tInvolving Users in Web Accessibility Evaluation
\n\u2022\tVideos and stuff
\n2. Technical standards
\n\u2022\tShared definition of requirements \u2013 holschlag and meyer involved in
\ndiscussions, and Dreamweaver project mgr \u2013 want a single standard to
\nwork with
\n\u2022\tAdaptable, flexible
\n3. How-to \u2018techniques\u2019 for different levels<\/p>\n
\nWCAG 2.0 -> principles, guidelines and success criteria<\/p>\n
\nWCAG 1 -> Guideline: sufficient contrast
\nWCAG 2 -> Success criteria: contrast ratio of at least 5:1<\/p>\n
\nWCAG 2 Techniques are more informative and more technologically
\nspecific, including examples. You can develop your own to meet the
\nsuccess criteria.<\/p>\n
\nWCAG 1 -> 7.1 about screen flicker
\nWCAG 2 -> appropriate movement allowed
\nScripting now allowed because most assistive technologies can handle
\nthem, e.g. using DOM to add content. Some scripting encouraged.
\nWAI-ARIA \u2013 Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite
\n\u2022\tMake Menus and tree controls accessible etc
\n\u2022\t2nd working draft out \u2013 last call soon
\n\u2022\ttool developers mostly
\n\u2022\tbest practices guide on the way soon \u2013 for web developers
\n\u2022\talready implemented in some browsers and assistive technologies<\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tWCAG 2.0 – Normative
\n\u2022\tTechniques – Informative
\n\u2022\tUnderstanding WCAG 2.0 is intended as a Reference.
\n\u2022\t\u201cQuick Reference\u201d now available at w3.org\/WAI \u2013 shorthand full of
\nlinks to the Techniques and the Understanding documents. Can be
\ncustomised \u2013 select what technologies you are using and what success
\ncriteria level you are aiming at and which sections you want.
\n\u2022\tOverview \u2013 short intro for the confused
\n\u2022\tWCAG 2 FAQ \u2013 includes an RSS feed
\n\u2022\tIssues, Changes \u2013 explains things people might not have agreed about \u2013 particularly on validity etc<\/p>\n
\nATAG 2.0 is in final working draft and waiting to sync up with WCAG 2.0<\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tpromote understanding of how people with disabilities use the web
\n\u2022\tulaccess.com\/justask Shawn\u2019s book<\/p>\n
\ninsider perspective, with no critical reflection beyond some sensitivity
\nabout the fact that there had been disagreement through the process.<\/p>\n
\nHe wants to raise questions this time. British design \u2013 what makes it
\ndistinctive? Englishness of Morgan or MG, or Gallic flavour that was
\nCitroen. Is it on the web?<\/p>\n
\ninfluences of American flavoured globalised design.\u201d Andy Clarke June
\n2005<\/p>\n
\nDefinitions:
\nInternationalisation: Designing regional and cultural variations without changes to underlying engineering.
\nLocalisation: Creating a design for a specific region or culture so that people can, and want to use it.
\nGlobalisation: to extend to other or all parts of the globe; make worldwide: to globalise the auto industry.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tFive dimensions of culture
\no\tPower distance
\no\tIndividualism vs collectivism
\no\tMasculinity vs femininity
\no\tUncertainty avoidance
\no\tLong vs short term orientation<\/p>\n
\nAre we qualified to do that? Andy says he isn\u2019t. He is a product of
\nhis own social and political and racial stereotypes \u2013 we are all
\nproducts of our environment. <\/p>\n
\nHe shows us the Islamic Cultural Foundation website. Is it Islamic?
\nElements of the \u2018Best South African Website\u2019 say things that are Africa.
\nOther sites not very much. Afrigator is an African website aggregator.
\nIs this important?
\n\u201cusability takes on an immediate and relevant cultural context\u201d 1998 \u2013
\ndo the big companies with global reach take this into account. What
\nabout <\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tamazon \u2013 comparison between amazon.com and amazon.co.uk not surprising
\nlittle difference. But amazon.co.jp looks the same, just in Japanese.
\n\u2022\tHSBC \u2013 the world\u2019s local bank \u2013 but the websites are the same the
\nworld over, just in different languages \u2013 except China, and only in a
\nminor way.
\n\u2022\tAOL \u2013 a little bit of difference
\n\u2022\tYahoo \u2013 looks similar mostly \u2013 differences are more economic than
\naesthetic\/cultural \u2013 variations further east are quite interestingly
\ndifferent though. Taiwan looks pretty different, Korea even more so \u2013
\nparticularly internal areas \u2013 the kids area especially.
\n\u2022\tPokemon for Japan
\n\u2022\tHonda Japan to Honda.com very very different experience.<\/p>\n
\nMany respondents felt not. Some felt the opposite.
\nJapanese issues interesting \u2013 mix of vertical and horizontal, use of
\ngraphics due to lack of typographic control of Japanese characters in
\nHTML. Japanese want to read content and then be given the choice of what
\nto do at the bottom of the page \u2013 sometimes a long scroll down\u2026<\/p>\n
\nthe Jakob Nielsen tenets of web design \u2013 have we really learnt
\neverything and for all markets?<\/p>\n
\nMany said yes \u2013 learning from each other. Some said no. There was
\nquite a lot about cultural influences coming from the west, and the web
\nbeing no different.
\nAndy goes on about Comic Books, about the Japanese versions (Manga), the
\nBritish versions, (Judge Dredd and Concrete) etc and how they were
\ninspired by cinema, and now the other way around (SIN CITY). There are
\nways in which content is prioritised in comics through size. This can
\nhappen on the web.<\/p>\n
\nMass personalisation seems to be the way forward\u2026<\/p>\n
\nbe useable for everybody. One interface cannot be just translated with a
\nfew tweaks for different countries. Rolling out the Japanese version
\nnext week, as per last.fm is a broken model.<\/p>\n
\nAnything less is arrogant imperialism.<\/p>\n
\ndesigning for their region, when making something for global reach..<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s much more than logo and colour scheme \u2013 its about what it means to
\nyou, and cultural diversity needs to come into this picture.<\/p>\n
\nAndy Budd \u2013 CSS 2.2 in the meantime, coz CSS3 is taking a long time\u2026?
\nRichard Ishida says there\u2019s some really excellent stuff for
\ninternationalisation in CSS3 for typography etc but limited number of
\npeople working on it and the splitting it up into bits idea could well
\nbe welcome at W3C.
\nDan Cederhom says multiple backgrounds TODAY would be very nice.
\nBut would CSS2.2 speed up browser support?<\/p>\n
\nJoe says NO. W3C seem to have taken everyone seriously, including Joe,
\nand this is good. Web designers are now in a post-guideline \/
\npost-checkpoint age\u2026.
\nRichard \u2013 W3C has no monopoly, Javascript and IETF etc\u2026. \u2013 HTML is
\nthanks to the W3C, agree it needs to be developed further. Criticism
\nwasn\u2019t quite right \u2013 communication problem \u2013 users, browser + tool
\ndevelopers, and standard organisations \u2013 needs to be more communication
\nbetween all. Some complaints about CSS spec going too fast for browsers
\nto keep up. Triangular flow of communication in a supportive way needs
\nto be got going. Joe asks what users? Richard says all kinds. Drew
\nfrom WaSPs facilitating communication from developers to browser makers?
\nSpecs have been built on some of the implementations without the W3C.
\nHTML 5 font tag? Hopefully not. <\/p>\n
\nsuggestion to W3C you have to do so on the list and to be on the list
\nhave to be invited expert. Jeremy says that actually W3C does pay
\nattention to blogs. Joe says Opera guys also good to write to, who will
\npass it on.<\/p>\n
\nDan \u2013 Boston city site.
\nRichard \u2013 his own, or the W3C site \u2013 general laughter. He says they are looking at improving the design.
\nDrew \u2013 wants W3C to stop redesigning it. Wants online banking to develop, with cleverer applications and tagging etc
\nJoe \u2013 airline, public utility, etc etc \u2013 all of them. Mr Gouda\u2019s foodstore redesign. <\/p>\n
\nDrew \u2013 functionality at planning phase is very difficult with
\napplications compared to documents. Dan \u2013 it\u2019s usually more work
\n(applications rather than documents)! Dan codes rather than photoshops\u2026
\nenjoys playing with Rubyonrails\u2026 Richard \u2013 Used to talk to software
\nengineers about user interface design, now doing this again \u2013 text
\nexpansion from a database, etc. Layout can change in
\ninternationalisation process\u2026 ARIA moving pretty fast\u2026 Joe \u2013 not a Java
\nperson, no informed opinion!<\/p>\n
\nDrew \u2013 Zeldman\u2019s CSS redesign of A List Apart.
\nDan \u2013 The Dao of Web Design \u2013 Jon Alsopp \u2013 written 02, more relevant than ever.
\nRichard \u2013 Tim Berners-Lee\u2019s \u201cWeaving The Web\u201d; overview of the web.
\nJoe \u2013 hard-core research every morning.<\/p>\n
\nDrew \u2013 EDU taskforce. Prepare a course \u2013 long process \u2013 rapidly
\nout-of-date. WaSPs Educational Task Force working with people in
\neducation.
\nJoe \u2013 Everyone has a learning curve\u2026 \u2026poor instructors. Be cautious.
\nRichard \u2013 not for W3C \u2013 they have enough trouble writing standards
\nDan \u2013 should everyone be self-taught? He is \u2013 it works \u2013 but no.<\/p>\n
\nuniversities, took the microphone and said that the academics didn\u2019t
\ncome to the training sessions because they were too arrogant. This was
\nreally insulting, and I felt really annoyed and got up to complain.
\nDrew insisted that no matter how many letters I have at the end of my
\nname I should still wait for the microphone. So I took the microphone,
\nand responded, as someone \u201cwith letters at the start of my name\u201d, saying
\nwe\u2019d had the same conversation last year, and that I am a university
\nlecturer teaching web standards at Bachelors level at Salford, and it
\nwas sad that I was probably the only one here AGAIN (no-one in the
\naudience contradicted me), but I am not the only one in the UK, and that
\nif Patrick Griffiths (the organiser of @media) wanted to bring all us
\neducators who are teaching web standards together, it would be great.<\/p>\n
\nDan \u2013 enjoyed Hicks ideas of looking outside of web design for inspiration<\/p>\n
\nIf we dismiss Ajax as not accessible to what extent is it not our problem?
\nJoe \u2013 who says? It many respects it makes it things more accessible
\nsometimes. However, GMail is awful, incompetently badly developed.
\nIs it accessible? It depends. ARIA would help.
\nGez Lemon has good research on these issues.<\/p>\n
\nThe weight of the internet is 2oz \u2013 all those electrons \u2013 that requires 200million horse power to run it.<\/p>\n
\nto be an attempt to be amusing by being critical, and this fails so
\noften. The lowest form of wit etc\u2026<\/p>\n
\nliving. It\u2019s all been done, pretty well, too. So he is retiring from
\nWeb Accessibility. WCAG 2 is better, etc etc \u2013 Web Accessibility is in a
\ngood state. Uphill battle.<\/p>\n
\n@media07<\/a>Introduction
\nSo here I am again at the @media conference \u2013 the third in a row \u2013 and this time in Islington<\/a>.
\nUnfortunately there is no wireless at the venue so I can\u2019t post live,
\nand this blog will have to be a bit of a digest \u2013 notes taken during the
\nday and thoughts at the end, all posted on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\nthough the majority of the speakers seemed to be preaching to the
\nconverted, and pitching below the level of the audience. There was a
\ngreat moment when one of the speakers asked people to put their hands up
\nif they\u2019d been making websites for more than two years. Everyone put
\ntheir hands up. Now keep if your hand up if over three years, four
\nyears, etc etc I was quite surprised and pleased to be amongst the two
\nor three people in the hall with their hands still in the air when it
\ngot to ten years. See my 1995 website for Tamworth Arts Centre<\/a> \u2013 the first Arts Centre website on the web, remembered by some web surfers who were around at the time, like Mike Ryan of Idaho<\/a>. <\/p>\n
\nexciting than the first one. Unsurprising you might say. At the end of
\nAndy Clarke\u2019s closing keynote, however, in response to a question from
\nthe floor complaining about the state of education in web design, to
\nwhich Andy Clarke responded with an anecdote about his son correcting
\nhis secondary school teacher, I got the microphone and said \u2013 \u201cspeaking
\nas a university lecturer teaching Web Standards at Bachelor\u2019s level\u2026\u201d
\nbut was unable to finish because the whole hall burst into applause! A
\nguy from Yahoo Europe turned round from the row in front of me once I\u2019d
\nsaid a few more words and sat down, and introduced himself, and there
\nwas a buzz of people around me for a while, including Andy Budd from ClearLeft<\/a>.
\nIt was quite fun. In the year since, the Web Standards Book for the
\nUniversity sector that I was supposed to be principal author and editor
\nof for Freinds of Ed (A Press), never came to fruition \u2013 Andy Budd
\ndropped out, without giving any reason, and the publisher I think lost
\ninterest after that. I have plenty of material towards the three
\nchapters I was supposed to write, and a first draft of a chapter from Phil Morle<\/a>,
\nbut nothing else. The Yahoo guy never did reply, despite writing to him
\ntwice, but I have had at least one or two people write to me over the
\nyear, who took my card at @media2006, looking for my graduates!<\/p>\n