+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 13, Issue 12, September 18, 2014. 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/itss/training/online/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML5. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Web Accessibility Tutorials By W3C WAI. "These tutorials show you how to develop web content that is accessible to people with disabilities and that provides a better user experience for everyone..." http://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/ WCAG-EM Report Tool By W3C WAI. "Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator..." http://w3c.github.io/wcag-em-report-tool/dist/#/ Tip #36: Make These Four Quick Web Site Accessibility Fixes By Heather Burns. "The 36th web site tip for charities and third sector organisations is four really quick fixes you can make today to improve your web site’s accessibility" http://www.idea15webdesign.com/webwise-wednesdays/tip-36-make-four-quick-web-site-accessibility-fixes A Workflow for Testing Web Accessibility with Free Tools By David A. Kennedy. "Learning how to test for web accessibility can be overwhelming, even for the most experienced web worker. However, if you approach the testing bit by bit throughout the creation of your project, it becomes more manageable..." http://davidakennedy.com/2014/09/12/a-workflow-for-testing-web-accessibility-with-free-tools/ The Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher Education (TEACH) Act By National Federation of the Blind. "Blind college students talk about the little-known, but devastating problem of inaccessible educational technology. The NFB explains why the TEACH Act, a bill that creates accessibility guidelines to stimulate the market, guide schools, and ensure equal access for students with disabilities, is the best solution for everyone." https://nfb.org/TEACH Good Intentions, Bad Legislation By Terry W. Hartle and Jarret S. Cummings. "...higher education leaders are so concerned about legislation that would take decision-making about the use of technology to support learning out of the hands of campuses and turn it over to an obscure federal agency..." https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/09/16/essay-criticizing-teach-act A New Obstacle for Students With Disabilities By Kyle Shachmut. "It is well documented that students with disabilities are facing barriers in their pursuit of higher education, and institutions are having a difficult time fulfilling their legal obligation to ensure equal access. So it was surprising last month when the American Council on Education, in a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin about the proposed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, completely dismissed a provision that would make it easier for its member institutions to meet the needs of students with disabilities." http://chronicle.com/article/A-New-Obstacle-for-Students/148795/ Google Drive and the Docs Editors - Designed with Everyone in Mind By Google. "Imagine trying to keep track of another person- real-time edits in a document - using only your ears. Or trying to create a table from spreadsheet data - without being able to clearly see the cells..." http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/google-drive-and-docs-editors-designed.html +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Responsive Web Design Podcast By Karen McGrane and Ethan Marcotte. "This is a Responsive Web Design Podcast, co-hosted by Karen McGrane and Ethan Marcotte. In each episode, Karen and Ethan interview the people who make responsive redesigns happen..." http://responsivewebdesign.com/podcast/ All You Need To Know About Vertical-Align By Christopher Aue. "I set myself the target to clarify the behavior of vertical-align once and for all. I ended up working through the W3C specifications and playing with some examples. The result is this article." http://christopheraue.net/2014/03/05/vertical-align/ Grid By Example By Rachel Andrew. "I have been writing and speaking about the CSS Grid Layout Module for some time now. In order to learn how Grid works I've put together lots of small examples, and I am publishing them here as a resource for anyone else interested in this emerging specification..." http://gridbyexample.com/ CSS Audits - Taking Stock of Your Code By Susan Robertson. "A CSS audit helps to organize code and eliminate repetition for speedier sites. Susan Robertson shows us how to sleuth out potential trouble spots, along with offering tips on tools, documentation, and ways to keep our codebases lean well into the future." http://alistapart.com/article/css-audits-taking-stock-of-your-code Getting Started with Sass, Part 2 By Laura Kalbag. "In Part 1 of this series, I introduced you to Sass, a CSS pre-processor. I showed you how to set up a project using Codekit to compile Sass files, and got started on the basics of the Sass syntax with partials, variables, comments and errors. In this, Part 2, I'm going to take a deeper look at variables and using maths with variable operations to achieve vertical rhythm. I'll also discuss Sass nesting syntax to make CSS easier to read and maintain." http://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/getting-started-with-sass-part-2 +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. The New Face of Usability Testing By Jeff Sauro. "With the recent adoption of unmoderated remote testing methods, usability testing can be done for a fraction of the cost and time. Unlike a traditional usability test that requires a facilitator and participant attend a session at the same time (and usually same location), unmoderated sessions allow participants to complete a study at any time and without the need of a facilitator..." http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/new-faces.php +04: EVENTS. Front Porch October 7, 2014 Dallas, Texas U.S.A. http://frontporch.io/ W3C JavaScript Course 20 October to 16 November, 2014 Online http://www.w3devcampus.com/javascript-w3c-course/ +05: HTML5. Presentation on HTML5 Accessibility By Becky Gibson. "I presented HTML5 Accessibility at the 5th Annual online Accessibility Summit in September, 2014. I also presented this topic at Knowbility's AccessU in May, 2014. " http://www.weba11y.com/blog/2014/09/10/presentation-on-html5-accessibility/ Web Components By Jeremy Keith. "I have conflicting feelings about Web Components. I am simultaneously very excited and very nervous. That's probably a good sign..." http://adactio.com/journal/7431/ Notes on Notes (of smart people) About Web Components By Steve Faulkner. "...Web components are being built in the same development culture that web stuff is usually built in, and this is bad for accessibility. This is not to say that web components are by definition bad. It is the same story for any implementation of accessibility support on the web, in browsers and in UI libraries: it usually comes after, often way after a product has been shipped and distributed to millions upon millions of people and 100s of thousands of developers have gorged on and regurgitated the code in their own projects..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/09/notes-on-notes-of-smart-people-about-web-components/ Web Components Punch List By Steve Faulkner. "If your control has the stuff below covered, excellent! If not then please implement it before shouting to the world about it being the next big thing. Or at least document its deficits and provide a health warning that the control is incomplete and not fit to use in production..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/09/web-components-punch-list/ The URL Mess By Sam Ruby. "tl;dr: shipping is a feature; getting the URL feature well-defined should not block HTML5 given the nature of the HTML5 reference to the URL spec." http://intertwingly.net/blog/2014/09/16/The-URL-Mess After 5 By Robin Berjon. "As we approach the point at which HTML5 will become a Recommendation, it is time to think about how HTML would best be handled next..." http://darobin.github.io/after5/ A Guide to the HTML5 time Element By Aurelio De Rosa. "In this article I'm going to cover HTML5's