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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Joe Dolson Accessible Web Design</title> <link>http://www.joedolson.com/articles</link> <description>Tips and Commentary on Web Accessibility, Usability, and Search Marketing best practices.</description> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Nov 2012 15:00:20 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=</generator> <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/AccessibleDesign" /><feedburner:info uri="accessibledesign" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><geo:lat>44.989065</geo:lat><geo:long>-93.106668</geo:long><feedburner:emailServiceId>AccessibleDesign</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname>http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><item> <title>New plug-in: WP Accessibility</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/f0Uljv8ZrWo/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:55:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Accessibility]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Software]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1706</guid> <description>I released a brand-new WordPress plug-in today, targeted specifically at improving accessibility issues. There&#8217;s only so much you can do via a plug-in when it comes to site accessibility &#8212; most of what grants accessibility for a WordPress site is in the theme. However, that doesn&#8217;t mean that you can&#8217;t do anything. This plug-in is [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/">New plug-in: WP Accessibility</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[I released a brand-new WordPress plug-in today, targeted specifically at improving accessibility issues. There’s only so much you can do via a plug-in when it comes to site accessibility — most of what grants accessibility for a WordPress site is in the theme. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything. This plug-in is designed to help shoehorn some accessibility improvements into themes that need a bit of help. It can do a fair amount, and every feature can be disabled or enabled as needed for a specific theme. The plug-in is new, so forgive me for any errors — either in judgement or in execution — but here’s what it can do so far: <ul> <li>Remove redundant title attributes from page lists, category lists, and archive menus. </li> <li>Enable skip links with WebKit support by enqueuing JavaScript support for moving keyboard focus.</li> <li>Add skip links with user-defined targets.</li> <li>Add language and text direction attributes to your <abbr >HTML</abbr> attribute</li> <li>Remove the target attribute from links.</li> <li>Force a search page error when a search is made with an empty text string. </li> <li>Remove tabindex from elements that are focusable.</li> <li>Strip title attributes from images inserted into content. </li> <li>Add post titles to standard “read more” links.</li> </ul> Many of these are tasks that have been performed by a diversity of plug-ins or have been known as customizations to WordPress over the years, but many of these plug-ins have not been updated for a long time. I’ve centralized several valuable accessibility improvements into one plug-in, to hopefully increase the ease of implementation and ability to find what you need! At the moment, the plug-in is focused on front-end issues, and does not currently include any administrative improvements. <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-accessibility/">Download WP Accessibility</a> now and give it a try! <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/">New plug-in: WP Accessibility</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/17__3KTHKC6oXUaHsofbhYgrwgs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/17__3KTHKC6oXUaHsofbhYgrwgs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/17__3KTHKC6oXUaHsofbhYgrwgs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/17__3KTHKC6oXUaHsofbhYgrwgs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=f0Uljv8ZrWo:UcmJFlNxL_A:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/f0Uljv8ZrWo" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>9</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/10/new-plug-in-wp-accessibility/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>WordPress Tips: Add a custom call to action by shortcode</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/vvNz0j9EZ4M/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/wordpress-tips-add-a-custom-call-to-action-by-shortcode/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:31:55 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Web Development]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <category><![CDATA[code]]></category> <category><![CDATA[tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wp]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1650</guid> <description>When building WordPress sites, I&#8217;ve often been in need of adding a call to action with a striking appearance into the site. Working by myself, that&#8217;s really no problem &#8211; but when it needs to be added into client-created posts and Pages, it can get to be a hassle &#8212; and cause long-term problems. It&#8217;s [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/wordpress-tips-add-a-custom-call-to-action-by-shortcode/">WordPress Tips: Add a custom call to action by shortcode</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[When building WordPress sites, I’ve often been in need of adding a call to action with a striking appearance into the site. Working by myself, that’s really no problem – but when it needs to be added into client-created posts and Pages, it can get to be a hassle — and cause long-term problems. It’s not really effective or efficient to teach all the intricacies of <abbr >HTML</abbr> to every client. If you’ve created a cool <abbr >CTA</abbr> format which requires specific <abbr >HTML</abbr> you also want to make sure that this is as easy as possible for your client to enter into their post. The easiest way to do this, in my experience, is by adding a simple shortcode, accessible using the quicktags bar in the WordPress <abbr >HTML</abbr> editor. (Since I care about <abbr >HTML</abbr> quality, I prefer to either disable the Visual editor or at least strongly discourage it’s use.) The WordPress <abbr >API</abbr> makes it shockingly easy to set all this up. First, we’ll define our Call to action shortcode: <div class="wp_syntax"><table><tr><td class="line_numbers"><pre>1 </pre></td><td class="code"><pre class="php" style="font-family:monospace;">add_shortcode('cta','my_cta');</pre></td></tr></table></div> Short and sweet – the first argument is your shortcode itself — with ‘cta’ defined, you’ll used [cta] as your shortcode. Next, we’ll define the function which will handle the shortcode. <div class="wp_syntax"><table><tr><td class="line_numbers"><pre>2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 </pre></td><td class="code"><pre class="php" style="font-family:monospace;">function my_cta($atts, $content='') { extract(shortcode_atts(array( 'class'=>'my-cta' ), $atts)); $output = ''; if ( $content != '' ) { $output = "<div class='cta $class'>$content</div>"; } return $output; }</pre></td></tr></table></div> The arguments accepted by the ‘my_cta’ function are the attributes of the shortcode, as assigned in the extracted array and the content enclosed by the shortcode. This particular function is designed to accept one shortcode parameter; and not to output anything if there’s no enclosed body. The usage of the shortcode is like this: <pre> [cta class="buy-now"]Buy my awesome widgets today![/cta] </pre> The output would be: <div class="wp_syntax"><table><tr><td class="code"><pre class="html" style="font-family:monospace;"><div class='cta buy-now'>Buy my awesome widgets today!</div></pre></td></tr></table></div> Want to add another parameter to the shortcode? It’s easy — just add another value into the array of parameters. Finally, we want to add the quicktag — so here it is: <div class="wp_syntax"><table><tr><td class="line_numbers"><pre>15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 </pre></td><td class="code"><pre class="php" style="font-family:monospace;">add_action('admin_footer','add_quicktags');   function add_quicktags() { ?> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> /* Adding Quicktag buttons (WP ver. 3.3+) * - Button HTML ID (required) * - Button display, value="" attribute (required) * - Opening Tag (required) * - Closing Tag (required) * - Access key, accesskey="" attribute for the button (optional) * - Title, title="" attribute (optional) */ QTags.addButton( 'aq_cta', 'CTA', '[cta class=""]', '[/cta]', '', 'CTA' ); </script> <?php }</pre></td></tr></table></div> Only two pieces to this code, as well: an action added to the footer of your admin pages, and a function which inserts a new quicktag. Need to add multiple quicktags? Just add each one on a new line – there’s no need to add additional actions or additional scripts. And here’s the whole thing — you can just drop the entire block of code into your theme’s functions.php file and everything here will be available immediately. <div class="wp_syntax"><table><tr><td class="line_numbers"><pre>1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 </pre></td><td class="code"><pre class="php" style="font-family:monospace;">add_shortcode('cta','my_cta');   function my_cta($atts, $content='') { extract(shortcode_atts(array( 'class'=>'my-cta' ), $atts)); $output = ''; if ( $content != '' ) { $output = "<div class='$class'>$content</div>"; } return $output; }   // Add buttons to html editor add_action('admin_footer','add_quicktags');   function add_quicktags() { ?> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> /* Adding Quicktag buttons (WP ver. 3.3+) * - Button HTML ID (required) * - Button display, value="" attribute (required) * - Opening Tag (required) * - Closing Tag (required) * - Access key, accesskey="" attribute for the button (optional) * - Title, title="" attribute (optional) */ QTags.addButton( 'aq_cta', 'CTA', '[cta class=""]', '[/cta]', '', 'CTA' ); </script> <?php }</pre></td></tr></table></div> The whole thing is only 30 lines of code – including 9 lines of comments. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/wordpress-tips-add-a-custom-call-to-action-by-shortcode/">WordPress Tips: Add a custom call to action by shortcode</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pLpPob3RAb3zH8m9dlh0Rud971g/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pLpPob3RAb3zH8m9dlh0Rud971g/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pLpPob3RAb3zH8m9dlh0Rud971g/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pLpPob3RAb3zH8m9dlh0Rud971g/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=vvNz0j9EZ4M:cA3XqoPKbLA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/vvNz0j9EZ4M" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/wordpress-tips-add-a-custom-call-to-action-by-shortcode/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/wordpress-tips-add-a-custom-call-to-action-by-shortcode/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>Google’s “Accessible Web Design” top 10</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/RhDSfb0Ce6Q/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/google-accessible-web-design-top-10/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:30:10 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Accessibility]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Search Engines]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=250</guid> <description>I&#8217;ve long had an interest in the impact of search results on learning. In our search-driven information world, the results for a search can have a significant impact on what people will learn. To that end, I did a search on &#8220;accessible web design,&#8221; to find out what the most available resources on the subject [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/google-accessible-web-design-top-10/">Google&#8217;s &#8220;Accessible Web Design&#8221; top 10</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[I’ve long had an interest in the impact of search results on learning. In our search-driven information world, the results for a search can have a significant impact on what people will learn. To that end, I did a search on “<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=accessible+web+design&btnG=Google+Search">accessible web design</a>,” to find out what the most available resources on the subject are right now. Today, I’m going to go through the first 10 search results of the moment with an eye to see just what Google thinks the most important and relevant results are for that search. Why is this important? Simply because the route for learning about accessible web design is likely to begin with a search. The resources that turn up will guide the way people new to web accessibility shape their work. Because Google’s personalized results can make this tricky, I did two independent searches — one in Chrome, where I was currenty logged into my own Google account — and one on Opera, with a freshly deleted browser history and with the parameter ‘pws=0′ appended to the search, to disable personalized search. The results were almost identical; just a minor reordering which was very clearly influenced by my own browsing habits. This listing reflects the order of items in my Chrome search, with the position of the item in the Opera search in parentheses. These searches were performed on September 16th, 2012. Although the degree of change over 4 years suggests there won’t be a lot of change if you’re seeing this next week, it is nevertheless just a snapshot. I also did this exact same search in 2008 — 4 years ago — so I’m also making notes here as to how this has changed over the last 4 years. <dl> <dt>#1 (#1) <a href="http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/web-design.html">Resources on Accessible Web Design</a></dt> <dd>This is a great list of specific resources on building accessible web sites. Maintained by Terrill Thompson, who does a lot of great work in accessibility. It’s hard to tell for sure just how up to date the resources are, but I did verify that there were no broken links, so that’s a good sign. This is a great result for somebody looking for an introduction to accessible web design.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: #1</dd> <dt>#2 (#2) <a href="http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Technology/universal.design.html">World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design</a></dt> <dd>Where the #1 result was a broad set of resources, this document is a concise discussion of what accessible web design is. While brief, it’s a great overview of the issues and basic solutions. It’s also from the same organization as result #1. This is also a great result – better for the rote beginner, in many ways. </dd> <dd>Position in 2008: #2</dd> <dt>#3 (#3) <a href="http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility">Accessibility – <abbr >W3C</abbr> – World Wide Web Consortium</a></dt> <dd>I’m relieved to see this page showing up in the results. When I ran this check in 2008, the <abbr >W3C</abbr> was only represented by <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/benefits.html">this business case document</a>, which even then cited itself as incomplete. The <abbr >W3C</abbr>’s own statement on web accessibility is a must for these results.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: Not in first page of results</dd> <dt>#4 (#5) <a href="http://www.gawds.org">GAWDS – The Guild of Accessible Web Designers</a></dt> <dd>I have mixed feelings about the presence of GAWDS in these results. The organization hasn’t been significantly active for some time, and although it’s a great group (and I’m a member), I don’t really feel like it offers a lot in terms of up to date web accessibility information.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: Not in first page of results</dd> <dt>#5 (#9) <a href="http://www.joedolson.com">Joe Dolson Accessible Web Design</a></dt> <dd>The first page seems like an improbable location for my own web site. Position 9 is certainly more appropriate than #5, but neither are particularly sane. As much as I like the idea of having my own site appear this high in the results (and suspect that there may be personalization going on here beyond what I can disable), I can’t help but think that this is not an appropriate result for this search.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: #10</dd> <dt>#6 (#4) <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/article/accessible-web-design">An Introduction to Accessible Web Design</a></dt> <dd>Some good, some bad. The article is good in principle. It does, however, date to 2002 — which means that a significant amount of the article is referencing the <abbr >WCAG</abbr> version 1.0 and the Bobby accessibility testing service — which is long, long gone. This is a great example of an article that could be truly evergreen if it were updated. As it is, it’s kind of 50/50.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: #5</dd> <dt>#7 (#6) <a href="http://www.webaim.org/resources/designers/">WebAIM: WebAIM : Web Accessibility for Designers</a></dt> <dd>These results would not be complete without a resource from WebAIM. This specific result is a bit of a surprise, from a content perspective, but I’m sure that the rampant sharing of infographics has given it a significant boost. It’s a good resource — it doesn’t stand on its own easily, since it’s quite cursory, but it gives great information. And unlike most of the other results — it’s actually about design and accessibility, rather than being more focused on development.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: did not appear in top 10</dd> <dt>#8 (#7) <a href="http://webdesign.about.com/od/accessibility/Web_Accessibility.htm">Web Accessibility – ADA Guidelines for Web Page Design</a></dt> <dd>My immediate reaction on seeing any about.com page in search results is rarely positive, and this article is no exception. It’s filled with positively ancient resources and a few just plain errors. The opening statement is “ADA Guidelines for the web cover aspects of Web accessibility” — giving a definite impression that the Americans with Disabilities Act actually provides guidelines for the web. Even if you’re considering the Section 508 guidelines, you have to observe that Section 508 is an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973, not the Americans with Disabilities Act. To be fair, not every resource in the list is actually terrible — but it doesn’t start out well. Not something that would be in my top 10 resources.</dd> <dd>Position in 2008: did not appear in top 10</dd> <dt>#9 (#8) <a href="http://www.studygs.net/accessibility.htm" rel="nofollow">Basics of Website design for accessibility</a></dt> <dd>This is a bad article. It includes woefully inaccurate information, misconceptions, and ambiguous statements. One of the keystones of the page is an inaccessible Flash-driven accessibility tutorial. Oh, the irony. </dd> <dd>Position in 2008: did not appear in top 10</dd> <dt>#10 (#10) <a href="http://webdesignledger.com/tips/an-idiot%E2%80%99s-guide-to-accessible-website-design">An Idiot’s Guide to Accessible Website Design</a></dt> <dd>This is neither a particularly good article nor a particularly bad one. It’s vague, includes some misconceptions — but mostly it just isn’t very meaty. You can pick up a few good tips here, but you may also walk away with entirely incorrect perceptions including that <abbr >WCAG</abbr> 2.0 “eliminates” the guesswork in accessibility requirements. Sorry – but accessibility doesn’t summarize that neatly. </dd> <dd>Position in 2008: did not appear in top 10</dd> <h3>Overall Thoughts</h3> The top results are a definite improvement on what they were in 2008. The appearance of the <abbr >W3C</abbr>’s main accessibility page is definitely a great addition. Unfortunately, there are also a few truly not-so-great or just inappropriate results. However, the top five or six results (excluding the fact that my web site rises significantly to the top when results are personalized to me) include some great resources — and the very first result can get you even further. This was, of course, a pretty generic search — it’s about as broad as you can get, and is just one example of search results about web accessibility. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/google-accessible-web-design-top-10/">Google’s “Accessible Web Design” top 10</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0xU_DJIQ65uQGaKUFof3fJKgur8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0xU_DJIQ65uQGaKUFof3fJKgur8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0xU_DJIQ65uQGaKUFof3fJKgur8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0xU_DJIQ65uQGaKUFof3fJKgur8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=RhDSfb0Ce6Q:YvMTs4tVHaA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/RhDSfb0Ce6Q" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/google-accessible-web-design-top-10/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/google-accessible-web-design-top-10/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>My Calendar 2.0 released!</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/pjjc1VFACak/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/my-calendar-2-0-released/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:46:09 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Software]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <category><![CDATA[plugins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[webdev]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wp]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1602</guid> <description>Download My Calendar Buy My Calendar: Submissions It&#8217;s difficult to decide exactly when to increment a major version number. In truth, My Calendar 2.0 is not much more different from 1.11.x than 1.11.x was from 1.10.x; but the difference between version 1.0 and 2.0 is truly striking. In fact, there may not be more than [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/my-calendar-2-0-released/">My Calendar 2.0 released!</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="aside"> <ul> <li><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-calendar/">Download My Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/my-calendar/submissions/">Buy My Calendar: Submissions</a></li> </ul> </div> It’s difficult to decide exactly when to increment a major version number. In truth, My Calendar 2.0 is not much more different from 1.11.x than 1.11.x was from 1.10.x; but the difference between version 1.0 and 2.0 is truly striking. In fact, there may not be more than a few dozen lines of code in common between the two versions. The main purpose behind the rewriting involved in My Calendar 2.0 was about long-term performance. All versions in the 1.x series had a common problem: while saving and editing events was a very simple database query, fetching events from the database was kind of crazy. Anybody who looks at input/output efficiency will tell you that it’s more efficient to read from a database than to write to a database. So, superficially, having a simple database input is efficient. But the trade off was some very complicated data manipulation that needed to happen in order to calculate the date for every single event rendered. Not a big deal when you’ve got a handful of events; but if you’ve got hundreds of events in a month it could become a pretty crushing load. This was the lot of using recurring events. So now the queries to fetch events have been greatly simplified. Saving new events is less efficient, yes – it will take longer to write events because those recurring events are now being calculated when they’re saved, so that those calculations never need to be done on the front end. Now, this meant rewriting everything that displayed or fetched events – iCal, <abbr >RSS</abbr>, calendar output, upcoming events lists — everything. It also meant rewriting everything that saved or edited events. So I’m not entirely expecting this new release to be bug free — rewriting everything took a long time (nearly 3 months), with an additional month dedicated to testing and bug fixes. It’s only been 18 hours since I released 2.0.0, and version 2.0.1 – with three bug fixes – is already out. I’m dedicated to getting this version at 100% as fast as possible, however. If you encounter a bug, let me know about it promptly, and I’ll get right on it! <h3>Enough with the techy talk. What else is new?</h3> My Calendar 2.0 includes a whole slew of improved views and filtering tools for the events manager lists. You can now define categories as “Private”, so that only logged-in users will see them. You can limit your calendar output by author. There’s a new template tag, “{timerange}”, which does pretty much what you’d expect. A wide variety of outstanding bugs were fixed. That’s about it. Most importantly, My Calendar 2.0 sets the stage for new development in many directions. <h3>Like what? What’s coming up?</h3> The first big new thing is already here — <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/my-calendar/submissions/">the first My Calendar PRO extension</a>. This is the first in what will be a suite of add-ons for My Calendar which provide additional functionality. This one, My Calendar: Submissions, gives you a method to let your visitors and members submit events. They can submit them for free or they can buy a key which can be used for submitting events. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/my-calendar/submissions/">Read more about My Calendar: Submissions</a>! <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/my-calendar-2-0-released/">My Calendar 2.0 released!</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hiy-_ftGy_VEbcxPni8uFgSQmFk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hiy-_ftGy_VEbcxPni8uFgSQmFk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hiy-_ftGy_VEbcxPni8uFgSQmFk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/hiy-_ftGy_VEbcxPni8uFgSQmFk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=pjjc1VFACak:HsDt2d9STQ0:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/pjjc1VFACak" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/my-calendar-2-0-released/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/09/my-calendar-2-0-released/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>WP to Twitter and the recent Twitter API change announcements</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/vifu_zjuZis/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/08/wp-to-twitter-and-the-recent-twitter-api-change-announcements/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:42:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <category><![CDATA[api]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wp]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1563</guid> <description>Twitter is currently in the much-lambasted and disruptive process of making big changes to their API. As the author of a WordPress plug-in which only exists with any value due to its ability to use the Twitter API, I have to be pretty attentive to these kinds of changes. The API changes probably won&#8217;t have [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/08/wp-to-twitter-and-the-recent-twitter-api-change-announcements/">WP to Twitter and the recent Twitter API change announcements</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[Twitter is currently in the much-lambasted and disruptive process of making big changes to their <abbr >API</abbr>. As the author of a WordPress plug-in which only exists with any value due to its ability to use the Twitter <abbr >API</abbr>, I have to be pretty attentive to these kinds of changes. The <abbr >API</abbr> changes probably won’t have any significant impact on <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-to-twitter/">WP to Twitter</a> or on most users of WP to Twitter. Technically, I’ve needed to change the name of the application since their last major change in terms of service – the use of the “Twitter” mark is a <a href="https://twitter.com/logo#naming">violation of their terms of service</a>. (Technically, a violation of their trademark guidelines.) That will probably happen in the next few months – so be warned. It’s going to be a pain, but I have to do it. However, these changes — as published so far — don’t appear to have a major impact on a software application like WP to Twitter. First, a significant set of the changes regard the display of Tweets. Well, fortunately, WP to Twitter doesn’t display Tweets in any way. So, I can pretty much ignore that entire section. Second, the next big set of changes have to do with application size. Now, WP to Twitter does have over a million downloads – which probably translates to 20 or 30,000 active users. Maybe even more. However, from the Twitter application perspective every one of those users is a separate application; so none of them are large scale applications which will greatly impact Twitter. Third, they’re modifying the rate limiting rules. While hypothetically this could effect WP to Twitter, it’s not very likely. The limit is something like 60 calls per hour for a given endpoint. WP to Twitter uses only one endpoint – the status update endpoint – so you may run into this if you’re posting more than 60 times per hour from your WordPress blog. Possible, but not very likely. So, on the basis of what Twitter has published so far, WP to Twitter appears to be safe. However, it is certain that these rules are not the complete set of rule changes. For now, I’ll just try and keep up with the information and find out what’s going to happen. WP to Twitter isn’t going anywhere yet. But I do suggest that you subscribe to my blog to keep updated… <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/08/wp-to-twitter-and-the-recent-twitter-api-change-announcements/">WP to Twitter and the recent Twitter <abbr >API</abbr> change announcements</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/rYCfTje7f0lhX6Cod4G16rziU_k/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/rYCfTje7f0lhX6Cod4G16rziU_k/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/rYCfTje7f0lhX6Cod4G16rziU_k/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/rYCfTje7f0lhX6Cod4G16rziU_k/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=vifu_zjuZis:K94zL63IGlQ:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/vifu_zjuZis" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/08/wp-to-twitter-and-the-recent-twitter-api-change-announcements/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/08/wp-to-twitter-and-the-recent-twitter-api-change-announcements/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>Translating (my) WordPress Plug-ins</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/FkjWqz4zDZQ/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/translating-my-wordpress-plug-ins/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:35:06 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <category><![CDATA[i18n]]></category> <category><![CDATA[l10n]]></category> <category><![CDATA[plugins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wp]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1535</guid> <description>Start your translation Get an account Getting plug-ins localized can be a big challenge. Depending on a single very dedicated person to translate hundreds of out-of-context strings (and to update them when the next version comes available) is far from reasonable. As a result, the translations available for my plug-ins have tended towards the sketchily [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/translating-my-wordpress-plug-ins/">Translating (my) WordPress Plug-ins</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="aside"> <ul> <li><a href="http://translate.joedolson.com">Start your translation</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/contact.php">Get an account</a></li> </ul> </div> Getting plug-ins localized can be a big challenge. Depending on a single very dedicated person to translate hundreds of out-of-context strings (and to update them when the next version comes available) is far from reasonable. As a result, the translations available for my plug-ins have tended towards the sketchily inaccurate. Not because the translations are bad (although, to be honest, I don’t really know that), but because many, many strings are missing from the translations. Even the best translations are still only around 90% completed — and a lot of the older translations for some plug-ins now only provide a translation of 15-20% of the plug-in. It’s inevitable, really. Somebody needs a translation for a project, so they do it – but then the project is done and nobody is continuing to take care of updating the translation. To help solve this problem, I’m doing what a lot of developers have done in the past: turning to <a href="http://blog.glotpress.org/">GlotPress</a> so I can crowdsource the translations. Translations will no longer be dependent on one person to provide the entire translation — instead, people can wander in, translate a few strings, then disappear — and I’ll just be happy that they’ve brought my project closer to being fully translated! You can find my GlotPress installation at <a href="http://translate.joedolson.com">translate.joedolson.com</a>. You’ll need a user login to start translating, and I’m opting not to allow self-registrations right now, so <a href="/contact.php">contact me</a> and I’ll set you up with an account. Thank you in advance! <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/translating-my-wordpress-plug-ins/">Translating (my) WordPress Plug-ins</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H31_t58tYAy6CWp7W8AOX0rNP9Y/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H31_t58tYAy6CWp7W8AOX0rNP9Y/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H31_t58tYAy6CWp7W8AOX0rNP9Y/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H31_t58tYAy6CWp7W8AOX0rNP9Y/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=FkjWqz4zDZQ:DPwBlgS614k:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/FkjWqz4zDZQ" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/translating-my-wordpress-plug-ins/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/translating-my-wordpress-plug-ins/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>The case of the missing alt attribute.</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/9U89jMbx7ug/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/the-case-missing-alt-attribute/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:13:10 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Accessibility]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Web standards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[a11y]]></category> <category><![CDATA[html5]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Semantics]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1521</guid> <description>Jennifer Sutton brought this interesting factoid to my attention today: the single most common HTML validation error is the missing alt attribute. Of the 100 most common validation errors collected by W3C Love, a missing alt attribute comes it at number one &#8212; with almost double the occurrences of the next most common error. It&#8217;s [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/the-case-missing-alt-attribute/">The case of the missing <code>alt</code> attribute.</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/jsutt">Jennifer Sutton</a> brought this interesting factoid to my attention today: the single most common <abbr >HTML</abbr> validation error is the missing alt attribute. Of <a href="http://w3clove.com/charts/errors/pie">the 100 most common validation errors</a> collected by <abbr >W3C</abbr> Love, a missing <code>alt</code> attribute comes it at number one — with almost double the occurrences of the next most common error. It’s 2012, and the key mistakes in <abbr >HTML</abbr> seem to remain the same. Now, one can’t help but hope — since these are the results of validation tests — that these numbers also reflect a large number of people who went “Oh! Whoops! Better get that information in there.” Of course, some of those people may have then gone on to write in “Spacer.gif. 600 bytes. White line.” as their alt attribute. Obviously, this raw number of errors doesn’t demonstrate a lot of definitive information. However, the mere fact that this is literally the most common validation the error points to some serious problems in <abbr >HTML</abbr> education or in <abbr >HTML</abbr> generating tools. I can understand people providing bad text alternatives. When you read over the guidelines for authoring alt attributes — either in the <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/embedded-content-1.html#alt"><abbr >HTML</abbr> 5 specs</a> or Steve Faulkner’s slightly-more-easily-understood <a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/">Techniques for useful text alternatives</a>, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The chains of instructions: this MUST be done, that MAY be done, this is REQUIRED, that is OPTIONAL…it can be a lot to digest. But omitting the alt attribute entirely is kind of scary. Yes, it’s true that the HTML5 spec currently (and unfortunately) allows the alt attribute to be excluded in certain very limited situations — but the statement that alt attribute is optional in <abbr >HTML</abbr> 5 is far from accurate. It is definitely still required, and omitting the attribute is discouraged in no uncertain terms, as below: <blockquote cite="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/embedded-content-1.html#alt"> Such cases are to be kept to an absolute minimum. If there is even the slightest possibility of the author having the ability to provide real alternative text, then it would not be acceptable to omit the alt attribute. </blockquote> Even the most casual search of phrases like “alt attribute optional” brings up many, many results clearly indicating the importance of using the alt attribute without even a suggestion that the attribute is in fact optional, so it seems like somebody would have to work pretty hard to come away with the impression that it was optional. <h3>Why is it left out so frequently?</h3> We need better education. Ignorance is still the primary guiding factor in casual web development. When people are exercising barely-learned skills, they tend to go in the direction of the simplest possible set of instructions — leaving out any portion which doesn’t seem to have any impact. That means that images are included with a <code>src</code> attribute; possibly with width and height; and frequently with some kind of inline style or border instruction. Alt attribute? Why? Any time you read up on an alt attribute, you’re likely to run smack into the <abbr >TL;DR</abbr> problem: explaining how to use alt attributes in any detail means a long, involved explanation. Even explaining the incredible difference between an empty alt attribute and an ommitted alt attribute is over the head of many layman content authors. We need better decision making tools. It’s necessary to simplify. The experts need to work out the complex details of what, why, how, and when an alt attribute should be one thing or another. For the layman, it needs to be summed up as simply as possible. Here’s my idea of a generalized alt attribute decision tree: <ul> <li>Is this image a link or form control? <ul> <li>Yes: Alt attribute must communicate the destination of the link or action taken</li> <li>No: Continue on!</li> </ul> </li> <li>Does this image contain text? <ul> <li>Yes: Alt attribute should include the communicative text of the image (not text included for visual effect)</li> <li>No: Continue on!</li> </ul> </li> <li>Does the image contribute meaning to the current page or context? <ul> <li>Yes, and it’s a simple graphic or photograph: the alt attribute should briefly describe the image in a way that conveys that meaning.</li> <li>Yes, and it’s a graph or complex piece of information: the information contained in the image must be included elsewhere on the page.</li> <li>No: the alt attribute should be empty.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Is the image something other than the above? <ul> <li>The alt attribute should be empty.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> This very definitely does not cover all cases. But it’s much better than nothing; I hope that somebody is able to make use of it. If you have a quarrel with the wording or instructions, let me know in the comments! It is incredibly hard to resist covering more and more issues here. But the purpose of this decision tree is to provide a simple and understandable tool to navigate the most common circumstances. This is not the place to explain the entire scope of alternative content. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/the-case-missing-alt-attribute/">The case of the missing <code>alt</code> attribute.</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6lzPn-YdjvqAdwCA4OcjVZQxKYQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6lzPn-YdjvqAdwCA4OcjVZQxKYQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6lzPn-YdjvqAdwCA4OcjVZQxKYQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6lzPn-YdjvqAdwCA4OcjVZQxKYQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=9U89jMbx7ug:s4v_90x8G-0:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/9U89jMbx7ug" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/the-case-missing-alt-attribute/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>13</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/06/the-case-missing-alt-attribute/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>WP to Twitter 2.4.0 release — with PRO upgrade!</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/XCPWTrmO1DY/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/wp-twitter-240-release-pro-upgrade/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2012 15:54:02 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Software]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wp]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1476</guid> <description>I finally released version 2.4.0 of WP to Twitter today. The latest major version release was quite a long time ago &#8211; 2.3.0 went out in June of 2011, and although it has received 18 (18!) bug fix or minor feature updates since then, the plug-in hasn&#8217;t had a good overhaul for a very long [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/wp-twitter-240-release-pro-upgrade/">WP to Twitter 2.4.0 release &#8212; with PRO upgrade!</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[I finally released version 2.4.0 of WP to Twitter today. The latest major version release was quite a long time ago – 2.3.0 went out in June of 2011, and although it has received 18 (18!) bug fix or minor feature updates since then, the plug-in hasn’t had a good overhaul for a very long time. Well, that’s not true anymore. The version I released today has some pretty substantial changes — it no longer requires cURL support, for one thing! A lot of the changes to WP to Twitter are, however, very un-sexy back-end rewriting. What’s more significant is that I’m simultaneously releasing a brand new thing for me: a PRO upgrade to WP to Twitter! It’s called <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro/">WP Tweets PRO</a>. WP Tweets PRO is all about new features: delayed tweeting of your new posts, automatically scheduled re-posting so those overseas readers don’t miss out, and full support for personalized Twitter posting for each author on your site. WP Tweets PRO is available with a single-site license ($25) or a multi-site license ($90). Buy the <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro/">Single site license</a>: <form action='https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr' method='post'><input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif" name="submit" alt="Buy WP Tweets Pro" /><input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick" /><input type='hidden' name='business' value='MLF9AJ9MLYY8W' /><input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='WP Tweets Pro' /><input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='1402' /><input type='hidden' name='amount' value='25.00' /><input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1" /><input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1" /><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD' /><input type='hidden' name='custom' value='true' /><input type='hidden' name='notify_url' value='http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-content/plugins/files/ipn.php' /><input type='hidden' name='return' value='https://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro/?mfr=thanks' /><input type='hidden' name='cancel_return' value='https://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro/?mfr=cancel' /></form> Buy the <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro-developer-license/">Multi-site license</a>: <form action='https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr' method='post'><input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif" name="submit" alt="Buy WP Tweets Pro (Developer License)" /><input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick" /><input type='hidden' name='business' value='MLF9AJ9MLYY8W' /><input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='WP Tweets Pro (Developer License)' /><input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='1437' /><input type='hidden' name='amount' value='80.00' /><input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1" /><input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1" /><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD' /><input type='hidden' name='custom' value='true' /><input type='hidden' name='notify_url' value='http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-content/plugins/files/ipn.php' /><input type='hidden' name='return' value='https://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro-developer-license/?mfr=thanks' /><input type='hidden' name='cancel_return' value='https://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-tweets-pro-developer-license/?mfr=cancel' /></form> I hope you find it useful — that was certainly my goal! <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/wp-twitter-240-release-pro-upgrade/">WP to Twitter 2.4.0 release — with PRO upgrade!</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/v9JVFUe0IZVj6roaReIixozH93E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/v9JVFUe0IZVj6roaReIixozH93E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/v9JVFUe0IZVj6roaReIixozH93E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/v9JVFUe0IZVj6roaReIixozH93E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=XCPWTrmO1DY:GwnoTWwo7fA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/XCPWTrmO1DY" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/wp-twitter-240-release-pro-upgrade/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/wp-twitter-240-release-pro-upgrade/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>Global Accessibility Awareness Day</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/LE-_A2K_vjw/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/global-accessibility-awareness-day/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 18:15:51 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Accessibility]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1425</guid> <description>May 9, 2012 is the first of what will hopefully be many Global Accessibility Awareness Days. The concept is simple, I hope: raising awareness of accessibility issues around the globe, so I&#8217;m going to neglect to spend a great deal of time explaining what it is. The day was inspired by Joe Devon and has [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/global-accessibility-awareness-day/">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[May 9, 2012 is the first of what will hopefully be many <a href="http://www.globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org">Global Accessibility Awareness Days</a>. The concept is simple, I hope: raising awareness of accessibility issues around the globe, so I’m going to neglect to spend a great deal of time explaining what it is. The day was inspired by <a href="http://twitter.com/joedevon/">Joe Devon</a> and has tirelessly been promoted by Joe and <a href="http://twitter.com/jennison">Jennison Asuncion</a> — and all thanks to them for their work! <h3>Why Global Accessibility Awareness</h3> The biggest problem facing accessibility practitioners continues to be awareness. When the people responsible for creating content don’t fully (or even partially) comprehend the consequences of their actions, it is almost certain that what they produce will exhibit fundamental accessibility problems. It’s rarely malicious — there are certainly people out there who expressly decide that they are putting other priorities first, but I don’t believe it’s actually out of malice. It’s usually a lack of understanding. The hope for an event like Global Accessibility Awareness Day is that the impact will be broad enough that it can successfully reach people who don’t already understand the issues — conferences rarely accomplish this, although they help, because those who attend are already involved, in some way, in accessibility issues. A small change can make a large difference. Something as simple as providing keyboard focus can transform an online purchase from a frustrating and dissatisfying experience to an easy, pleasurable task. (At least, if you like shopping.) But not everybody knows that. <h3>What can you do to help?</h3> First, talk about the issues. Tweet about them; post about them on Facebook; write a blog post. Get the word out. The more accessibility is talked about the more people will know about it. If you reach just one person who becomes curious and reads a little bit more than you have been successful. Awareness has increased. Cheerio. Evangelize to your colleagues, if they haven’t bought in. Learn the most common <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/resources">business case arguments</a>, and be ready to defend them. It’s a chronic problem that getting “the right look” commonly outweighs the importance of accessibility on many projects. If you’re in a position to take part in a <a href="http://www.mysqltalk.com/events.html">Global Accessibility Awareness Day event</a>, please do — I’m not within a thousand miles of one, so I certainly won’t be there, but I’d love to hear about them from somebody who attends! <h3>It’s not just a day</h3> Promoting accessibility awareness needs to be a lifestyle, not just a day. One day of heavy promotion is a great thing — the sheer volume of information greatly increases the likelihood that those who need the information will receive it. But don’t let it go there! Pulling the world forward to be truly welcoming on all accessibility fronts may be eternal and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules">Herculean</a>, but it isn’t <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus">Sisyphean</a>. This is a task we can succeed at, if we keep moving. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/global-accessibility-awareness-day/">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nQ5nmTeOMFPOr3kUkV52rUlOaEY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nQ5nmTeOMFPOr3kUkV52rUlOaEY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nQ5nmTeOMFPOr3kUkV52rUlOaEY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nQ5nmTeOMFPOr3kUkV52rUlOaEY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=LE-_A2K_vjw:lh_hS0cr4w4:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/LE-_A2K_vjw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/global-accessibility-awareness-day/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/05/global-accessibility-awareness-day/</feedburner:origLink></item> <item> <title>Google and Accessibility. What’s the plan?</title> <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~3/Pplm5dgWPXQ/</link> <comments>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/google-and-accessibility-whats-the-plan/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:33:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joe Dolson</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Accessibility]]></category> <category><![CDATA[a11y]]></category> <category><![CDATA[csun12]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.joedolson.com/articles/?p=1352</guid> <description>At CSUN 12, I attended an interesting but somewhat disconcerting demonstration of Google&#8217;s progress on making their Google Docs suite accessible. The presentation was by Anne Taylor from the National Foundation of the Blind and Jeff Harris, the product manager for Google Docs. They clearly agreed on one core point: that Google Docs was definitely [...]<a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/google-and-accessibility-whats-the-plan/">Google and Accessibility. What&#8217;s the plan?</a> Copyright 2004&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design</description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[At CSUN 12, I attended an interesting but somewhat disconcerting demonstration of Google’s progress on making their Google Docs suite accessible. The presentation was by Anne Taylor from the National Foundation of the Blind and Jeff Harris, the product manager for Google Docs. They clearly agreed on one core point: that Google Docs was definitely not ready for users with disabilities. So, the demonstration was more a show of the range of changes which Google has been adding to make their Docs suite accessible. On the surface, this is great: Google, a major web apps producer, is working very hard at making their products accessible. But I’ll hope you’ll pardon me if I don’t consider this a reason to party. What the demonstration really showed me was method of working with accessibility which seemed to amount to reinventing the wheel — doing whatever they wanted to implement a method for their software, then doubling their efforts so that they can use that method and make it accessible. That Google is working to add essentially their own accessibility <abbr >API</abbr> layer between their apps and a screen reader is only mildly disturbing to me. They have the resources to do this, and I do believe, on the basis of the demonstration, that their cloud office suite will eventually be accessible. What really concerns me is the example they’re setting. In the <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/should-accessibility-be-perfect-session-notes/">CSUN session on Perfect Accessibility</a>, Henny Swan raised a question about providing examples. The specific subject was in respect to organizations with an international reputation in accessibility, not an organization with a generally international reputation for web expertise; but I think that the point applies. Google, while not particularly known for their accessibility expertise, is well known for pushing the envelope in web development. They build cloud software which can do some very cool things. What it does not do is follow anything apparently similar to standardized methodology — and because of that, as an example, their work is grossly problematic. I worry that talented developers will look at Google’s methods and see them as a great example — when they may not also have the resources to build an entire accessibility abstraction layer between their ideas and assistive technology. Now, there are some advantages to Google’s system, as well. Because they are devoting these kinds of resources to accessibility, they’re not only aiming at the possibility of using the Google Docs suite; they’re aiming at a great user experience for users with disabilities. Nonetheless, a truly accessible interface with Google Docs is still a significant ways in the future. The best experiences currently are either using <a href="http://www.nvda-project.org">NVDA</a> with Firefox or Chrome with <a href="http://code.google.com/p/google-axs-chrome/">ChromeVox</a> and JAWS or VoiceOver. <a href="http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/google-and-accessibility-whats-the-plan/">Google and Accessibility. What’s the plan?</a> Copyright 2004 – 2011 Joseph C Dolson, Accessible Web Design <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/umXwFOXPQdl3YqP9Y-8afgXZjBg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/umXwFOXPQdl3YqP9Y-8afgXZjBg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/umXwFOXPQdl3YqP9Y-8afgXZjBg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/umXwFOXPQdl3YqP9Y-8afgXZjBg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?a=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/AccessibleDesign?i=Pplm5dgWPXQ:xaazCD60thA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AccessibleDesign/~4/Pplm5dgWPXQ" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/google-and-accessibility-whats-the-plan/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> <feedburner:origLink>http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2012/03/google-and-accessibility-whats-the-plan/</feedburner:origLink></item> </channel> </rss>