+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 7, Issue 12, September 18, 2008. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 12 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: ASSOCIATIONS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: JAVASCRIPT. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 08: TOOLS. 09: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Keyboard Support: Mysteries Unveiled By Mike Cherim, edited by Tommy Olsson. "...There are many aspects of providing for the disabled that can be pretty tricky to get right, but link focus is very easy. If it's omitted there's really no excuse. None at all. But I'm not writing this to shame those who are forgetting. Rather, this is a reminder. I'll even provide a quick overview. I don't want to upset anyone, I want to fix this blatant oversight. I want developers to remember. I can't get them to care, and I don't care if they do, but I do want them to be accommodating all the same. I'm not the only one pushing for this. There are other developers who are passionate about accessibility, then there are those who actually need it. These groups are also ready for web-wide adoption..." http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=312 New Issue: Understanding Disabilities When Designing a Website By Leona Tomlinson. "Digging into accessibility guidelines and standards can be as difficult and confusing as any language specifications, but Leona assures us that a few minor changes and a clear mind set can make a huge difference to users with disabilities." http://tinyurl.com/5swxuz Digital Discrimination By Jim Blansett. "Ten years after Section 508, libraries still fall short of addressing disabilities online..." http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6585927.html Time to Name and Shame Websites By Graham Downie. "Government publishers who did not provide material in accessible formats on websites would be named and shamed, Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said yesterday..." http://tinyurl.com/4pfcbe +02: ASSOCIATIONS. World Wide Web Foundation (W3F) "Tim Berners-Lee Announces World Wide Web Foundation...The World Wide Web Foundation seeks to advance One Web that is free and open, to expand the Web's capability and robustness, and to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet. The Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, and experts in many fields to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale." http://www.webfoundation.org/ +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Valid Replacement for

in my markup. The W3C validator tells me that this is invalid. How can I change the "type" of an ordered list's the list without using this attribute?". http://www.maxdesign.com.au/2008/09/16/valid-replacement-for-ol-type/ Anchor Buttons By Dave Shea. "I can't be the only one bored to tears of simple border and background colour styling for button formatting..." http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/09/17/anchor_butto/ Context Highlighting Using CSS Only http://users.skumleren.net/cers/examples/formhighlight.html +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Formative Evaluation: A Practical Guide By Lisa Neal. "The purpose of formative evaluation is to obtain user feedback during the design and development stages of a project, such as an online course or a Web site..." http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=tutorials&article=25-1 +05: JAVASCRIPT. Secrets of JavaScript Closures By Stuart Langridge. "Just come off stage after doing my presentation at Fronteers 2008 on the secrets of JavaScript closures. Go download it if you like that sort of thing." http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/secrets-of-javascript-closures/ 10 Smart Javascript Techniques to Improve Your UI By Glen Stansberry. "Javascript can add a lot of special effects that can really improve the user's experience. Here are 10 simple and clever Javascript techniques that add an extra dose of usability to any web page..." http://tinyurl.com/6la4eq Built-in Accessibility in GWT 1.5 Applications By Alex Rudnick. "As websites and applications become more interactive, users relying on assistive technology can find navigation difficult. Dynamic web applications are often written in ways that screen readers -- which interpret visual interfaces by speaking out loud or producing braille -- have difficulty interpreting..." http://tinyurl.com/6nddl5 Set of ARIA Test Cases http://wiki.codetalks.org/wiki/index.php/Set_of_ARIA_Test_Cases +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Podcasts and Transcripts from Accessibility 2.0 Includes Keynote: Jeremy Keith - Open Data, Making Twitter Tweet - Steve Faulkner, Fencing in the Habitat - Christian Heilmann, Rich media for people with learning disabilities - Antonia Hyde, User Generated Content - Jonathan Hassell, A social network for disabled people - Stephen Elsden, Tools to watch out for and avoid - Ian Forrester, and the Panel Discussion. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility2/podcasts.html +07: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. When Guidelines Should Be Descriptive or Prescriptive By Jens Meiert. "Every time I'm setting up guidelines and standards, mostly within companies, one of the questions I need to ask and answer myself is whether or not they, or which parts of them, should be descriptive or prescriptive..." http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080913/descriptive-or-prescriptive/ How HTML 5 Is Already Changing the Web By Scott Loganbill. "HTML 5 represents the biggest leap forward in web standards in almost a decade. Unlike the specifications that came before it, HTML 5 is not merely intended to present content to a web browser. Its goal is to bring the web into maturity as a full-fledged application platform ? a level playing field where video, sound, images, animations, and full interactivity with your computer are all standardized. And it may be a long way off still, but elements of HTML 5 are already reshaping the way we use the web..." http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/How_HTML_5_Is_Already_Changing_the_Web Any-Element Linking in HTML 5 (sort of) By Bruce Lawson. "A while ago, Eric Meyer suggested that HTML 5 should allow any element should be able to turn into a link by taking an href attribute - see his Any-Element Linking Demo. I suggested that, as a stop gap, HTML 5 should legalize the fact that all the big five browsers allow the a element to surround multiple elements and block level elements...." http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2008/any-element-linking-in-html-5/ This Week in HTML 5 - Episode 5 By Mark Pilgrim. "The big news this week is the merging of the Web Forms 2 specification into the HTML 5 specification, and updating it with the collected feedback of the last two years...." http://blog.whatwg.org/this-week-in-html-5-episode-5 +08: TOOLS. Test Your Color IQ Drag and drop the colors in each row to arrange them by hue order. http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77 +09: USABILITY. The Complexity Tax By Gerry McGovern. "The complexity tax is demanded by those who want to create dependency..." http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-09-15-complexity.htm United States Embassy Web Site: Thumbs Down By Rachel McAlpine. "The Plain English Awards ceremony 2008 last Thursday celebrated heroes of plain English in New Zealand. Four categories are for web sites, and web content is a big factor in other categories too..." http://www.contented.com/contented/?p=467 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]