+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 13, Issue 31, January 29, 2015. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 31 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML5. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 10: TOOLS. 11: USABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. When Can a Web Author Use Null alt Text alt="" to Make an Image Conform to WCAG? By David MacDonald. "...Most experts in the field identify a grey zone in the interpretation of pure decoration. Think of it as a continuum: 1.) If it's a gradient image or spacer image etc., all agree it needs alt="". 2.) If it's a picture that has a purpose, information or function then it needs descriptive alt text. 3.) If it is a photo of some thing for ambience or eye candy, then it is in the grey zone and can have alt="". However, a short alt description is preferable to most screen reader users..." http://davidmacd.com/blog/what-is-pure-decoration-alt-text-in-wcag.html Nine Common Accessibility Issues Affecting Websites By Tim Lohman. "Access iQ has trawled through its growing list of website accessibility audits to bring you nine of the most common issues we uncover..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/features/2015/01/nine-common-accessibility-issues-affecting-websites 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold By Rakesh Paladugula. "People who suffer from photosensitive seizure disorders, more specifically those who have photosensitive epilepsy induce seizures when a flash appear on the screen. The flash effect is observed significantly high in people who use screen magnifiers to read the content of the page and those who have problems such as tunnel vision..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2015/01/2-3-1-three-flashes-threshold/ Justice Department Settlement Requires the Museum of Crime and Punishment to Make Website, Facilities, and Tours Accessible By Minh Vu and Kylie Byron. "The Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing to pressure businesses to make their websites accessible even while it is drafting proposed regulations for websites that are supposedly coming out this June. The latest business targeted by DOJ is the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, which entered into a settlement agreement that was announced on Tuesday, January 13, 2015..." http://www.adatitleiii.com/2015/01/justice-department-settlement-requires-the-museum-of-crime-punishment-to-make-website-facilities-and-tours-accessible/ The Browser Accessibility Tree By Steve Faulkner. "The accessibility tree and the DOM tree are parallel structures. Roughly speaking the accessibility tree is a subset of the DOM tree..." http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/01/the-browser-accessibility-tree/ How Accessible is the Internet? By S.E. Smith. "We took a look at some of the most highly trafficked news sites on the Web over the week of Jan. 8. Starting with the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE), we assessed the main page of each site to determine if it met the basic standards of accessibility-compliant coding...We also evaluated sites visually: Was there a risk that content would be difficult for colorblind people to read? Did it include the dreaded carousel, which is a particular problem for screenreader and keyboard users who can't see carousel interfaces, and thus can't use them to navigate off the main page and onto the stories they link to?...Your favorite website probably flunked this test..." http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/headline-story/11421/disability-web-accessibility-design/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Updated Off Screen Techniques By Dylan Barrell. "The HTML Working group has recently deprecated the clip CSS property in favor of the more useful clip-path property. This means that our favorite offscreen technique that works well for RTL languages and mobile devices, and introduced by snook.ca must be updated..." http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2015/01/updated-offscreen-techniques.html Center and Crop Images with a Single Line of CSS Using object-fit: cover By Chris Nager. "It's simple. Set your image crop dimensions and use this line in your CSS..." https://medium.com/@chrisnager/center-and-crop-images-with-a-single-line-of-css-ad140d5b4a87 +03: COLOR. A Designer's Guide to Colour and Accessibility By Dennis Gaebel. "Around one in 10 of your site's male visitors are colour blind. Dennis Gaebel explains how to make your designs accessible for them..." http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/designers-guide-colour-and-accessibility-11513946 +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Selecting the Right UX Research Method By Juliet Richardson. "The other day a colleague asked, 'what is the difference between qualitative and quantitative user research?'. This is typically answered by saying that one gives you numbers; the other gives you more in-depth insight. It sparked a bit of a debate. Is it that easy, and is that the whole story?..." http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2015/selecting-right-ux-research-method +05: EVENTS. Accessibility Camp Bay Area February 28, 2015. Mountain View, California, U.S.A. http://www.accessibilitycampbay.org/ edUi November 9-11, 2015. Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. http://eduiconf.org/ +06: HTML5. YouTube Now Defaults to HTML5