Buzz Archives for August 2005
hasLayout and Microsoft Documentation
I've been chatting lately with Markus Mielke of Microsoft. Markus is sprucing up Microsoft's documentation for Internet Explorer. His first article will attempt to remove some of the mystery surrounding “layout”. Ingo Chao and band have supplied some great fixes for anomalies caused by “layout”. Markus' document will explain the mystery ...
By Dean Edwards | Filed in Browsers
- Happy Birthday Opera
-
The big red O turns a big One Zero today - Opera is 10 years young! To celebrate, the company is having a virtual online party, including some party favors, or perhaps that will mean a bit more to you if I translate that as "free Opera registration codes". This ...
- A Heavy Onload to Carry
-
Solving the window.onload problem, Allesandro runs through the pros and cons of possible solutions.
By Jeremy Keith | Filed in DOM, DOM Scripting TF
- Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization
-
On 21 August the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative released a new resource, titled Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization, which marshals criteria under the title's heading. These criteria are divided into four groups. Social Factors Technical Factors Financial Factors Legal and Policy Factors These documents facilitate the process of developing web accessibility practices ...
By Ben Henick | Filed in Accessibility
- World Grows Small(er): Welcome Japan!
-
It is with great pleasure that I introduce Kazuhito Kidachi as the newest member of WaSP. Kazuhito will be our liaison to Japan, working with the growing number of standards-oriented designers there to spread the good word. With joy and pleasure, welcome, Kazuhito. In other WaSP news, here's what's on tap ...
By Molly E. Holzschlag | Filed in WaSP Announcement
- DWTF Announces New Members
-
The WaSP Dreamweaver Task Force is pleased to announce the addition of two new members to its ranks. Stephanie Sullivan and Jesse Rogers are both very active and knowledgable Dreamweaver users, who believe in the promotion of web standards. They share the Task Force's common goal of striving to see ...
By Drew McLellan | Filed in Dreamweaver TF, WaSP Announcement
- Comments to U.S. Copyright Office.
-
Yesterday, Tim Berners Lee (W3C) hand and web delivered formal comments, World Wide Web Consortium Comments on Copyright Office Proposal to Use Single-Vendor Web Service to the United States Copyright Office regarding the proposed preregistration system. At the outset, we would like to stress that nothing in this letter should be ...
By Holly Marie Koltz | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- A List Apart Relaunches
-
Our good friends and colleagues at A List Apart have relaunched with a new design, new structure, and a Rails-based publishing system. Still the same great content, with intelligent commentary and instruction from some of the best in the business, and some of us normal folk too. A List Apart has ...
By Drew McLellan | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- IBM Donates DOM Scripting Accessibility Code to Firefox
-
IBM’s donation will help developers write accessible DOM Scripting applications, and make Firefox browser more accessible all-round.
By Chris Kaminski | Filed in Accessibility, Browsers, DOM, DOM Scripting TF
- Firefox Market Share Shrinks! The Sky is Falling!
-
Computerworld is running a story claiming that Firefox lost 0.64 of a point of market share in July. The same story has been reported by The Mac Observer with the added spin that Safari gained a bit. And now the good folks over at Digg have picked up the ComputerWorld ...
By Chris Kaminski | Filed in Browsers
- It’s a World Wide Web After All
-
Put on your clogs and dance, because Happy Clog wants you to. Happy Clog, you say? Isn't that Zeldman's design company? No, no my friends. That would be Happy Cog. Happy Clog is the pun-ny name coined for a new standards group emerging in the Netherlands. The ...
By Molly E. Holzschlag | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- U.S. Copyright Office Doesn’t Get It
-
…this notice seeks information whether any potential preregistration filers would have difficulties using Internet Explorer (version 5.1 or higher) to file preregistration claims, and if so, why. Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims, 70 FR 44878 August 4, 2005 Translation: part of the U.S. Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of ...
By Chris Kaminski | Filed in Browsers
- Frommelt: Pioneering Web Standards in Higher Ed
-
One of the common hurdles in converting university and college sites to Web standards is due to a decentralized system of Web development within the organization. Daniel Frommelt is the World Wide Web Coordinator for the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and has been instrumental in converting their Web site to XHTML. However, ...
By Steph Troeth | Filed in Education, Education TF, WaSP Announcement, Web Standards (general)
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.
Recent Buzz
WCAG 2.0 is a W3C Recommendation
By Matt May | December 11th, 2008
After 9.5 years of work, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 have reached W3C Recommendation status. On behalf of the WaSP Accessibility Task Force, I’d like to welcome WCAG 2 officially into the pantheon of Web standards.
I think this tweet by caledoniaman sums up the level of anticipation:
WCAG 2.0 and a new Guns ‘n’ Roses album in the same year. What’s the world coming to.
Interesting comparison. They’ve each had about as many pre-releases. In any case, I can say, having spent over 8 years with it, that WCAG 2 is not as entertaining as Chinese Democracy. But I do think that it’s better equipped to stand the test of time.
If I had to pick one thing I’m most happy about, I’d say it’s that the HTML- and text-centrism in WCAG 1 is largely gone. In its place is a much more flexible (dare I say robust?) concept of accessibility-supported technology. So when newer technologies can show themselves to be directly accessible, they too can be used in WCAG 2-conformant content.
Over the years, many people have conflated “WCAG-conformant” with “accessible,” and that’s led to people making statements like: “Don’t use JavaScript–it’s inaccessible.” That’s bad for everyone, from users with disabilities who actually can work with JavaScript (which is to say, the vast majority), to Web designers and developers, to policymakers, to those developing new technologies.
With WCAG 2, “Don’t use x” is no longer valid. (Was it ever?) It is now up to you, the developer, to work on the direct accessibility of your content, no matter what technology you choose. I believe we’re about to experience a new wave of accessible design techniques, as a result.
But first, we need to flush “Don’t use x” out of our system. Some are accustomed to saying it about anything they’re not comfortable with. That’s only holding accessible design back. It’s time to learn what’s out there, today, and use it in everyday Web design. It’s time to make everyone’s Web more accessible. Have a look at the WCAG 2.0 Recommendation, and its supporting material. Then, start thinking about what a more accessible Web could be. We still have a lot of work to do.
Filed in Accessibility, Accessibility TF, W3C/Standards Documentation, Web Standards (general) | Comments (8)