Category: Web standards

It’s still important to talk about HTML 4

December 8, 2010

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Topics: Web Development, Web standards.

Yes, that does say HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 4 in the title. This is not an article about HTML 5, or, indeed, about anything which is at all new. But it’s not just new technology which needs discussion in the web development sphere! It’s sometimes hard to remember that HTML 5 is still not in common use — and that writing about HTML 5 is something which almost exclusively targets forward-thinking and experienced web developers. HTML 4 is still in […]

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Forthcoming Updates on Federal Section 508 Rules

June 23, 2010

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Topics: Accessibility, Web standards.

Section 508 web accessibility standards were written as an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act in 1998. In web development terms, this isn’t short of an eternity — and in all practical sense defines an era. The web programming methods and styles of 1998 were radically different to what you see in normal use today. The Section 508 rules have been under revision recently, and were available for public comment until June 21, 2010. Unfortunately, my time didn’t allow me to […]

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HTML 5 has cool stuff: new input types!

Even though many elements of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 5 have only limited application at this time due to lacking browser support, there’s little reason not to make use of them. The design of the markup language is intended to minimize dependence on user agents, failing invisibly if the browser doesn’t offer that feature, which helps encourage early use of new elements. Of course, the lack of support does have some consequences. We can’t just go out writing HTML 5 […]

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When the right hand doesn’t listen to the left.

January 24, 2010

5 Comments

Topics: Accessibility, Web standards.

Thanks to the power of internet criticism, the code discussed in this blog post has since been fixed! Sometimes just making a complaint is all it takes to get something fixed. I was highly critical of the code authors for this low-quality code; but they truly did care, and made changes. Thank you. Authoring forms is an important part of keeping the web fully accessible — not just providing access to information, but allowing users to fully interact with the […]

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Minimum Color Contrast Ratio Changed in WCAG 2

December 15, 2008

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Topics: Accessibility, News, Web standards.

In the final release of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2, the acceptable minimum color contrast ratio was changed from 5:1 to 4.5:1. I’ve updated both my color contrast tests — Color Contrast Comparison Tool and the Color Contrast Spectrum Tool to reflect the change in contrast ratio. What does this change mean? Essentially, this means that the working group decided that color combinations with lower contrast (more similar colors) were acceptable for general use on the web. This is […]

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