Buzz Archives for April 2006
A DOM Scripting Wishlist for Microsoft
Peter Paul Koch has kick-started a discussion called “IE 7 and JavaScript: what needs to be fixed?”
By Jeremy Keith | Filed in Browsers, Bugs, DOM, DOM Scripting TF, Microsoft
- Accessibility and UK small businesses
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Take a look at the latest study coming out of the United Kingdom examining the attitudes and perceptions of small business toward accessibility.
By Derek Featherstone | Filed in Accessibility, General
- The WaSP Café
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Kazuhito Kidachi, the WaSP liaison in Japan, has started a new series of events dubbed the "WaSP Café". It is a social gathering where people can chat about web standards and related topics while drinking a nice cup of coffee. As Kazuhito says, "Why coffee? Because to talk seriously, it's ...
By Faruk Ateş | Filed in General, Outreach, WaSP Announcement, Web Standards (general)
- Accessibility TF Manifesto
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The ATF has put a lot of effort into looking at the world to analyse the issues standing in the way of broader accessibility for everyone. Having worked out the problems we face and what we are willing to tackle, we are now happy to present the Accessibility Task Force ...
By Matt May | Filed in Accessibility, Accessibility TF
- Tasty Bites for Standardistas
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John Oxton reveals some tasty web standards morsels for you to have a nibble on.
By Ian Lloyd | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- WaSP International Liaison Group
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With a growing interest around the world in Web standards, international relationships are becoming key. WaSP is seeking to create an International Liaison Group for the sharing of Web standards related information worldwide.
By Molly E. Holzschlag | Filed in General, Internationalization, Outreach
- Print-ready poster: separation in a nutshell
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Natalie Jost put together a print-ready poster, available as a PDF file, which describes the benefit of standards-friendly development techniques in a visual way. It's behind a link within the entry in question. Try it, you might like it. It's one of those "I wish I'd thought of that" ...
By Ben Henick | Filed in CSS, DOM, HTML/XHTML, Outreach
- Painless Node Creation with DOM Builder
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Dan Webb’s DOM Builder takes the finickiness out of standards-based markup generation.
By Jeremy Keith | Filed in Authoring Tools, DOM, DOM Scripting TF
- DOM Builder
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Now here’s a script we can get behind… Dan Webb’s DOM Builder combines the ease of innerHTML with the precision of DOM methods.
By Jeremy Keith | Filed in DOM, DOM Scripting TF
- Notre Dame Web Group
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Lead Web developer Steve Smith and the University of Notre Dame Web Group tackle web standards and accessibility in original and exciting ways.
By Holly Marie Koltz | Filed in Education, Education TF, General
- Spiffy Markup?
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A new time-saving tool to create rounded corners constructed with CSS does the rounds - but is it really so spiffy?
By Ian Lloyd | Filed in CSS, Web Standards (general)
- Blogger - Can I get in please?
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How Blogger blocks users from getting past the front door when the browser is JavaScript-capable but is sitting behind script blocking firewalls - and how it’s not alone in making this mistake.
By Ian Lloyd | Filed in Accessibility, Web Standards (general)
- Show Us Yer White Bits!
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It’s almost April the 5th and time for the first CSS Naked Day
- Protecting the Children
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WaSP and PANIC announce new recommendation for Child-safe Hypertext Markup Language.
By Porter Glendinning | Filed in April Fools
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)