Beast-Blog.com
Mike Cherim's Professional and Personal Web Log

This is sort of out of date. The tech is okay, but the colors I used are poor choices.

Today, class, we will build some “Accessible Smart Tables.” First you will need to gather some two-by-fours… oh, wait, wrong class. All we’ll need here is Notepad or another text editor for writing our code. I will show you how to build a table with web accessibilities in mind, and it’ll be a table with a bit more functionality and style than one would normally have. But, first, let’s have a brief look at tables and the purpose they serve, then we’ll address how to make them better.

Continue reading “Accessible Smart Tables” »

To comply with the requirements of web accessibilities, developers should identify and define any acronyms and abbreviations used in their web documents. Sounds simple, right? Things are not be as they seem. Problems exist which cannot be countered so considerations need to be given and concessions made . The main problem: abbreviations are not supported by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (MSIE), only acronyms are. But before going into the problems and solutions too far, let’s first determine what’s what as this also seems to be a source of disagreement.

Continue reading “Acronym Aberrations Abbreviated” »

I made some silly mistakes when making Green-Beast.com. I just didn’t know then what I know now… stated without shame or embarrassment. One was the over-use, call it abuse even, of acronyms. I had defined too many of them and had done so in the most redundant way (e.g. the same one defined ten times on a single page), as was pointed out to me when I had experts perform Jaws testing — the specifics of acronym use will be the subject of its own up-and coming web log article. Another mistake, which, too, will soon be an article unto itself, was the lack of proper list use in my navigational menus. Another mistake, as I’ll write about here, is the misuse of proper headings as discussed by the W3C in articles such as “Use headings to structure your document” and “The global structure of an HTML document.”

Continue reading “Heading the Wrong Direction” »

I would like to thank Tom Glasson and Steve Green of Test Partners Ltd., User Experience Experts, of the United Kingdom, for kindly testing Green-Beast.com v.2 with the Jaws screen reader and identifying the site’s issues.

Continue reading “Experts Perform Jaws Testing” »

“Web Accessibilities” is something you’ll see and hear more often nowadays as it pertains to web design. It’s becoming a popular way to differentiate oneself from the masses from a business perspective, of course, but it goes further. It’s about accommodation to your website visitors. Most developers, you see, haven’t really considered this, or at least as it concerns folks with disabilities. Many developers think access has do to with your average Joe being able to see the content. Some, the truly ignorant, don’t consider that much. They figure that if their website is viewable on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer then they’ve done their job.

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Since I wanted to make sure Green-Beast.com v.2 was accessible as possible, I extensively optimized the pages. The high-styles, like the default “Beast” style all run about the same. For that style I am posting the perfomrance numbers here, by page (Please note that optimum performance is 8 seconds or less at 56kbs.):

Continue reading “GBDC Permformance” »

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is something which should be taken into consideration when focusing on accessibility. Not for the impaired visitor or anything like that, but for all visitors (access is access after all). To optimize a site for search engines and access the following should be considered, listed in no particular order as all are important:

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An interesting discussion is going on at the GAWDS Organization Web Site that I feel may be of interest here:

Continue reading “Allowable Exclusion?” »

For quite some time I have been trying to come up with the right words. I felt I needed to say something well enough to effect what I and many others thought needed changing. I wanted results for the benefit of all. We all wanted results. But it was a tough subject to broach. Now no one has to say a thing as David Shea has taken it upon himself. It began like this:

Continue reading “Kudos to David Shea” »