As I rebuild the Wordpress theme for this site I’m trying to keep the markup nicely semantic. For those who don’t understand, the idea is to use only semantic tags in the markup - HTML tags that mean something in the context of the document, rather than HTML devoted to, say, presentation.
I missed going naked day but it’s inspired me to ditch my Wordpress theme and my CSS and build them again from ground up. Just for fun.
Axlog on BBC accessibility is not too impressed by the Graf report. I think he’s right to be annoyed. I’d have been more pissed-off myself but Zeldman cautions against crowing in the case of the accessible Odeon site designed by Matthew Somerville.
Matthew Somerville tries to persuade people of the benefits of accessibility by creating accessible versions of well-know websites. He’s created an accessible version of the National Rail Enquiries Site and of the Odeon Cinema site. Now Odeon Cinemas are threatening to sue him; this despite the fact they are breaking the 1995 Disability and Discrimination Act themselves in having an inaccessible site in the first place.
You can see Matthew’s website or go straight to his accessible versions of:
The Welsh Assembly hasn’t grasped the possibilities of RSS (or Atom) syndication. Although sites like AssemblyOnline have been providing RSS feeds of the Welsh Assembly media briefings and forum postings for some time, it seems the Welsh Assembly itself thinks you aren’t quite ready for it. Here’s what they say:
The Welsh Assembly is redeveloping its website. A check of the new homepage shows that:
Juicy Studio has published a bit of a rant about accessibility standards and their failure to encompass people with learning difficulties and the like. The article makes the mistake of accusing accessibility expert Joe Clark of doublethink. Joe responds and says,
We can make Web sites that work with no vision, no hearing, or no movement, or even none of the above. We cannot make a Web site work with no cognition.
A new web standards body, GAWDS: The Guild of Accessible Web Designers has been launched to promote accessibility and standards in web design. Founder Jim Byrne says:
Accessibility is now shorthand for the adoption of core standards that benefit every user of the Internet and impact the bottom line of every business. GAWDS intends to promote these standards to instill in Web designers the high level of competence and professionalism required to unlock the full potential of the Internet
