Judge: Disabilities Act doesn't cover Web - Tech News - CNET.com
"In the first case of its kind, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to the Internet. "
oh.
dive into mark may be the best guide out there to accessibility, but I wouldn't know since when I got there I had no idea where I was, what was going on or where to start. Like Bloggus Caesari coming late to the party means it's almost impossible to catch up (no matter how many jell-o shots you do).
As these sites gain popularity and fame as their body of content grows and word spreads, it becomes more and more important for them to take into account new visitors who will need to catch up.
A "start here" button is all it would take.
I know I've noted tis before, but since we're talking large font versions..
The Sacramento Bee -- toolbar is another example of a tool for changing fonts.
a confusing, mysterious tiny tool. But we're moving in the right direction.
My biggest question is how can be let people with poor eyesite be aware of the large font version without overwhelming normally sighted folks? it's nice design challenge.
A List Apart's font switcher is a great explanation of EXACTLY what we went through on B&A. Sometimes B&A's "large font version" is smaller than the regular version, simply because large font is em's. and em's are... well... unpredicatable. EH is in em's (you're soaking in it!) but it's a personal site and I can torture my readers as i see fit. (and you complain with equal joy!)
B&A has certain goals to meet and px were sort of what we got stuck with. (long story. don't ask)
I pray every night now for the next generation of browsers to use standard code, but hey, what's the odds of that?
Until then i guess it's up to us to try to invent things like the "large font version", IHT's scalable fonts and so on to try to treat our readers right.
One more thing... several people have written to me to ask why have a "large font version" when I could just use em's. Well, other than em's lively behavior, I've seen in many many many usability tests (including the ones we just did this week) that the bulk of surfers have no idea how to change their font size. So when they come to a site that is hard to read, they just leave.
So if your audience is not made up of web professionals, consider adding a clearly labeled large font version. If IE and Netscape aren't going to do the right thing, I suppose it's up to us.
It's a shame that only people in their early twenties will be able to read Sample Chapter from Unlocking Knowledge Assets by Susan Conway and Char Sligar since it's in 10pt type and unscalable.
My eyes, oh my eyes!!!!!
grumph. Ben says grumph too.
liga1.com gives the new EH good marks for accessibility. I actually learned this css trick from ALA which does very well with screen readers.
"The screenreader only reads the logo ALt text and the 5 main categories of the site and then it starts with the content. Fantastic! No more waiting through endless navigation links"
I found Designing for the elderly a thought-provoking article. Rather than tossing it aside-- oh, that isn't our audience-- you might ask yourself if some of the changes you make to your site might help other user bases beyond the elderly. The rolling suitcases you see in every airpost pulled along by everybody were originally invented to meet the unique needs of flight attendents. Yet they seem to have managed to be useful to everyone. larger fonts, simple designs may also help the impaired and the impatient...
I had a great chat with Mark at Web2001 about using his skinning css work to provide an easy "large-text edition" to websites. very exciting. I think I need to take two days to recode (and apply the redesign) to my site.
oh, p.s. a few horrid pictures from that event I've posted here. Feel the excitment! Panels of speakers! Hugging geeks! Giant numbers!
New feature suggested by Bill... we'll see how it goes. feedback welcome!
In my opinion, if you click on one blog this week, it's gotta be peter. He is the only one who doesn't seem to be suffering summer doldrums.
Victor redesigns! And it is nice...
http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/
Peterme is talking about comics again, and offers a funny quote from the new Yorker on yidishisms
Taylor is also talking about Scott McCloud's current "Don't make me think"
george is thinking about brand and UX
http://interactionbydesign.com/thoughts/thumbnails/index.html
whole lotta nothing has an analysis of trillian, an IM client
http://a.wholelottanothing.org/
Zeldman says teal gradient is the new gray
http://www.zeldman.com/coming.html
Storm pics on davezilla. I miss summer storms (SF doesn't have them)
Biggerhand continues to be 50% basketball, 50% funnny as hell... when is the season over?
LittleYellowDifferent bitch-slaps the webbys
http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/
Brad curses in front of his mother (cracked me up)
http://www.bradlands.com/dailybrad/index.shtml
more and more I think drug companies are evil as tobacco, and rebecca's pocket isn't dissuading me
http://www.rebeccablood.net/index.html
Best news on the web, metablog du jour "plastic"