graphicdivine Precision design for music, culture, commerce and education 2010-06-14T17:46:52+01:00 Chris http://graphicdivine.co.uk/blog.php chris@graphicdivine.co.uk tag:graphicdivine,2010:graphicdivine Pivot Copyright (c) 2010, Authors of graphicdivine HTML5 and what? 2010-06-14T17:33:00+01:00 2010-06-14T17:33:00+01:00 tag:graphicdivine,2010:graphicdivine.17 What I don't understand is why, on a page titled "HTML 5 and web standards"*, Apple are browser sniffing and won't let you in unless you use Safari? Browser War 2.0 anyone? * or is it "HTML and the future" -- inaccurate alt text like this is Very Bad Practice, and also smacks of a last minute change of heart. What I don't understand is why, on a page titled "HTML 5 and web standards"*, Apple are browser sniffing and won't let you in unless you use Safari? Browser War 2.0 anyone?

* or is it "HTML and the future" -- inaccurate alt text like this is Very Bad Practice, and also smacks of a last minute change of heart.

screengrab of apple site showing innacurate alt text

]]> chris Ah, the irony of it all 2010-02-18T19:28:00+01:00 2010-01-06T13:49:00+01:00 tag:graphicdivine,2010:graphicdivine.16 You might think that of all people The Office of Disability Issues would manage to produce a fully accessible website, and on the surface, it's not bad. Their failure, though, is both subtle and significant. You might think that of all people The Office of Disability Issues would manage to produce a fully accessible website, and on the surface, it's not bad.

Their failure, though, is both subtle and significant.

Lets start on the 'background to digital communications' page. All looks good. We have a tidy, consistent layout equipped with a clear navigation structure. Look what happens, though, if we pick an option from the menu at the top of the central content area, 'inclusive websites', for example. Suddenly our menu highlighting is gone, our breadcrumb trail is truncated, and we lose all sense of our location within the site heirachy.

It's not all about ALT texts and code validity. As the WCAG quicktips emphasise, we need to: "Make content appear and operate in predictable ways". Accessibility is about much more than disablity: it's about consistent design and robust information architecture.

]]> chris w3c site bugs 2009-12-15T09:39:00+01:00 2009-11-23T09:18:00+01:00 tag:graphicdivine,2010:graphicdivine.15 While browsing for information on web authoring tools I came accross these two apparently un-populated boilerplate templates, and a nasty little menu bug.http://www.w3.org/standards/agents/authoring.html |http://www.w3.org/standards/agents/browsers.html While browsing for information on web authoring tools I came accross these two apparently un-populated boilerplate templates, and a nasty little menu bug.

http://www.w3.org/standards/agents/authoring.html |http://www.w3.org/standards/agents/browsers.html

Layout bug on w3c site

Update

The menu bug has been quietly fixed.

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