Beast-Blog.com
2006 October

I need your feedback. On Friday, November 3rd I will be one of the speakers for the “Accessibility in Cyberspace: The ADA’s Applicability Online” conference. There I will be representing web developers. Frankly, I’m a little nervous and could use your help. I’ve given plenty of talks and presentations in my life, but as a representative of web developers this is my first. And since it’s a teleconference I can’t imagine the audience sitting in their underwear to ease the tension. I will be the last presenter, so the audience may be bored to tears at this point, yet for ten minutes I have to try and prevent them from nodding off and offer them value.

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If you’ve gotten Firefox 2.0 you may have noticed a red dotted line under certain words when, say, posting a comment on someone’s blog. This is a spell-check feature. Very handy indeed — especially for me since I’m a rotten typist. Well, like most spell-check features, Firefox also offers a custom- or user-dictionary.

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On October 3rd I announced that I released my Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form v.2.0. It was also requested at that time that it made available for use with WordPress. Well, now it is. I teamed up with Mike Jolley and together we took my form script and made a WordPress plugin that you can download on the Official v.2.0WP Download Page (see WordPress Version Demo). Check it out. (Also see Mike Jolley’s Official Page.) I think you’re going to be very pleased.

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Building a website and wanting it to be found and indexed by search engines, like most things in life, requires a little preparation. In this article I will offer some suggestions on what developers need to consider and do. I’ll also offer some suggestions for the site’s owner/client. Getting to the top of Google, for instance, isn’t as difficult as, say, swimming the English Channel, and is really quite doable, but it won’t happen by itself. The developer needs to make sure the site is designed for this purpose — in addition to its primary roles — and the client needs to give it a little push in the right direction. In case you’re wondering, this doesn’t involve unethical or underhanded practices, nor does it involve magic or a small fortune. Preparation, sound practices, and a little dedication to the cause is all that’s required.

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This article is based on my experiences working with web design clients. It may be subjective in nature and not reflect your experiences. Nevertheless, I wanted to share. I have found that sometimes web design clients don’t realize or understand that building a successful web site doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the developer. Rather I find — and they must realize — that the best possible results will come by way of a partnership of sorts. It’s a team effort. The client needs the developer’s help, but the developer needs the client’s help, too.

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Somebody out there wants you to be a fool. Somebody out there is hoping you’ll be a fool. In fact somebody out there is counting on it. And if you are, it’s a shame, because it reinforces the belief that fools abound on the web and the non-fools have to suffer for your ignorance or, in some cases, plain old stupidity. Have I piqued your interest? Good, there’s hope for you yet. Please keep reading as herein are fifteen ways to prevent yourself from becoming an Internet fool and thus saving the rest a few headaches. In a place where no fools exist, those who ply the trade of foolery will eventually get tired and move on.

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This has been long overdue — almost a year — but I have finally reworked my old contact form completely and I’m extremely pleased to re-release it as my all-new Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form v.2.0. I made a vast number of improvements to enhance its accessibility, usability, and most notably its security. To get the full picture about its features, and to download it for yourself, please see this official download page, and if you want, you may also check out the working demo form. I have slaved over this for more than a week adding fourteen fifteen sixteen security features and myriad enhancements. My main goal was to make it spam-proof. It’s not, there are no absolutes, but it should be very resistant. Think of it as you would a waterproof watch. Sure, it won’t be ruined when you go swimming, but at around 2000 feet it’s going to implode. Anyway, I’m really pleased with the results and hope you like it too.

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This post is here to support potential commentary in response to an Accessites.org article written by Gez Lemon and myself being called The Great Accessibility Camp-Out. In the feature we discuss our views as to how we define “web accessibility,” but that’s not the purpose of the article. Gez and I agree to disagree and get along just fine, and that is more to the point. Sure you can read it and agree or disagree with one or both of us. That’s fine. We’re not looking for votes. We realize that regardless of how we define the word, the goal in the end is the same: To make the web more accessible. Period.

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