+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 17, October 20, 2011.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. 

++ISSUE 17 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: COLOR.
04: EVENTS.
05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: PHP.
10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
11: TOOLS.
12: USABILITY.


SECTION TWO: 
13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

		
EDUCAUSE Accessibility Guidelines
By EDUCAUSE.
"This guide is a working draft developed by the IT Accessibility Constituent Group at the request of EDUCAUSE staff. It is designed to provide guidance to authors, reviewers, and publishers associated with EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ), and to the larger EDUCAUSE community, on how to ensure that web content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities..."
http://www.educause.edu/wiki/EDUCAUSE%20Accessibility%20Guidelines

ATHEN Report on the Accessibility of Google Documents
By Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN).
"Google Inc. is in the process of improving its Google Application suite to make it more accessible for people with disabilities. To date, many improvements have been made, but the efforts have largely targeted screen reader users and not considered people with other types of disabilities. In order to begin to assess the accessibility of the application suite for a variety of disability types, the Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN) performed functional tests (described in detail below) on two applications: the Google Docs Document List (hereafter referred to as 'Document List') and the Documents portion of Google Docs (hereafter referred to as 'Documents'). These tests show that many people with disabilities are currently unable to successfully use these applications..."
http://athenpro.org/google-docs-accessibility

Before and After Demonstration
By W3C.
"he Before and After Demonstration is a multi-page resource that shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of this same website. Each web page includes inline annotations that can be activated to highlight some of the key accessibility barriers or repairs. Each web page is also accompanied by an evaluation report to inform the developers on the level of conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)..."
http://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/

Unusual Words - Accessibility for Web Writers, Part 13
By Dey Alexander.
"People with certain cognitive, language or learning disabilities may find it hard to understand your content if you use unusual words or use words in unusual ways. Jargon and idioms are the two examples of this type of language. Avoiding jargon and idioms will make your content more accessible-and not just to people with disabilities..."
http://www.4syllables.com.au/2011/10/accessibility-web-writers-part-13/

Exclusion of Visual Readers with Low Vision form WCAG 2.0 and the 508 Revise
By Wayne Dick.
"When WCAG WG developed WCAG 2.0 they lacked the expertise needed to write guidelines for all visual disabilities.  Two years after aproval of WCAG 2.0 the WG made a interpretive decision that virtually eleminated visual readers with low vision from civil rights protection. Subsequent revise of 508 followed this lead.  The result is that today, visual readers with low vision have less legal protection in the US than they did before 1980.  I worte the following essay as a blog with Knowbility, but it was really directed at the W3C WAI and was not read. I am distributing it here because the exclusion of visual readers with low vision will mean illeteracy or semi-literacy for people in this group for at least a generation..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2011OctDec/0004.html

Opera Doesn't Work with Screen Readers - Does It Matter?
By Steve Faulkner.
One thing that should be obvious to anybody who has read my recent posts Rough Guide: browsers, operating systems and screen reader support and a Brief history of browser accessibility support or looked at HTML5Accessibility.com is that the Opera browser does not have practical support for screen readers. Of the big 5 browsers, it is the only one that does not work well with screen reading software on at least one platform. The question is, does it matter?
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/10/opera-doesnt-work-with-screen-readers-does-it-matter/

CSS, HTML, ARIA, Browsers, Assistive Technology and Interoperability
By Steve Faulkner.
"A number of issues are being debated in accessibility circles at the moment. These primarily revolve around how browsers and assistive technology interpret and represent HTML semantics via accessibility APIs and to the end user, and how this is affected by the use of CSS style rules..."
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/10/css-html-aria-browsers-assistive-technology-and-interoperability/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

CSS Accessibility Community Group
By W3C Community.
"Document and describe how browsers and assistive technology currently implement CSS in regards to accessibility and guidance on how they should. The documentation and guidance will be directed at both CSS implementers and developers who use CSS...Anyone may join this Community Group."
http://www.w3.org/community/cssacc/

CSS Accessibility - What Next?
By Steve Faulkner.
"The group has been created, people are starting to join. Over the next week I will start to jotting down idas for initial work. If you have ideas please add them to the list..."
http://www.w3.org/community/cssacc/2011/10/13/what-next/

An Introduction to CSS Pseudo-Element Hacks
By Nicolas Gallagher.
"CSS is a versatile style language that is most frequently used to control the look and formatting of an HTML document based on information in the document tree. But there are some common publishing effects - such as formatting the first line of a paragraph - that would not be possible if you were only able to style elements based on this information. Fortunately, CSS has pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes..."
http://nicolasgallagher.com/an-introduction-to-css-pseudo-element-hacks/

Responsive Elements that Retain Their Aspect Ratio
By Jonathan Nicol.
"Here is a quick tip for creating responsive elements that retain their aspect ratio as they scale..."
http://f6design.com/journal/2011/10/18/responsive-elements-that-retain-their-aspect-ratio/


+03: COLOR.

'Fluro' Colours
By Roger Hudson.
"My attention was recently drawn by Jenny Bruce to the relatively large number of sites that use bright 'fluro' background colours for navigation menu items and buttons. The combination of these 'fluro' background colours and white text often fails to meet the minimum colour contrast requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, whereas, when the text colour is black the contrast ratio is acceptable..."
http://www.dingoaccess.com/accessibility/fluro-colours-2/


+04: EVENTS.

UX People - One Day UX Conference
November 25, 2011.
London, United Kingdom.
http://uxpeople.co.uk/2011 

Breaking Development
April 16-18, 2012.
Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.
http://www.bdconf.com/


+05: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Organizing Mobile
By Luke Wroblewski.
"When it comes to organizing the content and actions on mobile, solid information architecture principles like clear labeling, balanced breadth and depth, and appropriate mental models remain important. But the organization of mobile web experiences also needs to..." 
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/organizing-mobile/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Dart or Why JavaScript Has Already Won
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"Google wants to create a new language for the web. That idea will have to be accepted by all other browser vendors. Nowadays that doesn't just mean Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, and Opera, but also Nokia, Samsung, RIM, and a host of minor ones. Why would they do as Google tells them?..."
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/10/dart_or_why_jav.html

Why Google Dart Will Miss Its Target
By Craig Buckler.
"Dart is Google's new programming language designed for creating structured web applications. You'll be able to run it on the server but it'll also run on the client. In a browser..."
http://www.sitepoint.com/google-dart-fail/


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Videos of Screen Readers Using ARIA, Updated
By Zoe Gillenwater.
"My previous post 'Videos of screen readers using ARIA' needed a good updating: I'd found several more applicable videos and some of the original videos had disappeared from the web, leaving the links to them broken. This article includes all the content from that original post that's still online plus all the new stuff I've found, organized by topic this time..."
http://zomigi.com/blog/videos-of-screen-readers-using-aria-updated/


+08: NAVIGATION.

14 Guidelines For Web Site Tabs Usability
By Justin Mifsud.
"...In this post I will be providing a list of 14 guidelines that you can use as a checklist to ensure that tabs on your web site are usable..."
http://usabilitygeek.com/14-guidelines-for-web-site-tabs-usability/


+09: PHP.

The Ins and Outs of PHP Exceptions
By Nikko Bautista.
"Exceptions are special conditions, usually errors, that can occur or be explicitly made by a program. They connote that something entirely different from what was expected has occurred. In most cases, the situation requires that a special instruction set be done in order to mitigate a catastrophic system failure..."
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/the-ins-and-outs-of-php-exceptions/


+10: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Dive Into HTML5... on HTML5 Doctor 
By Oli Studholme.
"...we've set up a mirror at diveinto.html5doctor.com, and we'll be experimenting with using GitHub to contribute..."
http://html5doctor.com/dive-into-html5-doctor/
Dive into HTML5 (HTML5 Doctor edition)
http://diveinto.html5doctor.com/


+11: TOOLS.

CSS SuperScrub
By isnoop.
"This tool can significantly reduce the size and complexity of your CSS by programmatically stripping unneeded content, stripping redundant calls, and intelligently grouping the remaining element names..."
http://isnoop.net/tools/css.php


+12: USABILITY.

The Default Choice, So Hard to Resist
By Steve Lohr.
"[M]ost people perceive a default as an authoritative recommendation."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/technology/default-choices-are-hard-to-resist-online-or-not.html

Personality in Design
By Aarron Walter.
"Our lasting relationships center around the unique qualities and perspectives we all possess. We call it personality. Through our personalities, we express the entire gamut of human emotion. Personality is the mysterious force that attracts us to certain people and repels us from others. Because personality greatly influences our decision-making process, it can be a powerful tool in design..."
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/personality-in-design/

Two Extremes of Touch Interaction
By Janie Chang.
"Microsoft Research Redmond researchers Hrvoje Benko and Scott Saponas have been investigating the use of touch interaction in computing devices since the mid-'00s. Now, two sharply different yet related projects demonstrate novel approaches to the world of touch and gestures."
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/touch-101711.aspx


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.

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+ 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:
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+ 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.]