[webdev] Web Design Update: February 28, 2013

Thu Feb 28 06:11:33 CST 2013

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 10, Issue 36, February 28, 2013.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web
design and development.

++ISSUE 36 CONTENTS.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: EVENTS.
04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.
05: HTML5.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.
09: TOOLS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.

SECTION TWO:
11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

NFB Google Apps Concerns Continue
By Jarret Cummings.
"Via email, Dan Goldstein, outside counsel for the National Federation
of the Blind (NFB), was asked to address NFB's current views on the
accessibility of Google Apps for Education. (Thanks go to Terry
Thompson, accessibility technology specialist at the University of
Washington and immediate-past leader of the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility
Constituent Group, for initiating the dialogue.) In his response, Dan
noted that the concerns NFB raised at the start of 2012 about Google's
approach to addressing Google Apps' accessibility problems have only
grown over the course of the year. Thus, NFB is once again considering
legal and/or regulatory options to dissuade institutions from using
Google Apps for Education as their institutional productivity
suite..."
http://www.educause.edu/blogs/jcummings/nfb-google-apps-concerns-continue

Google Response on NFB Google Apps Concerns
By Jarret Cummings.
"Earlier in the week, I posted a review of the most recent concerns
about the accessibility of Google Apps for Education expressed by the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB). In that piece, I noted the NFB
view that 'there is no indication yet that Google intends to address
accessibility problems that arise from users accessing Google Apps via
other market-standard browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox) and
assistive applications (e.g., the JAWS screen reader, the Dragon
NaturallySpeaking speech recognition application).' Google has since
provided the following clarification of its plans for Google Apps
accessibility in non-Google browsers and assistive applications, which
I quote in its entirety..."
http://www.educause.edu/blogs/jcummings/google-response-nfb-google-apps-concerns

Report on the Accessibility of Google Apps Webinar
Hosted by Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI) and
presented by Greg Kraus and Scott Williams.
http://easi.cc/archive/google2012/recording/index.htm
http://easi.cc/archive/google2012/resources.htm

Mobile Accessibility
By infotech.NEWS.
"Mobile accessibility generally refers to making Web sites and
applications accessible to people with disabilities when they are
using mobile devices. Traditional Web accessibility and its best
practices are influencing mobile design and can result in
universality..."
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/itsshelp/news/2013/02/mobile-accessibility.html

Writing a Solid Web Accessibility Policy - Cornell Gets It Right
By The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE).
"One of the most common requests we get from the field is for
information and resources on policy creation..."
http://ncdae.org/resources/tips/cornell.php

Guidelines for Evaluating Evidence for Indicator #1: Institutional
Vision and Leadership Commitment
By The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE).
"In previous newsletters, GOALS has outlined Best Practices for
Institution-Wide Web Accessibility and provided a Template and
Examples for documenting web accessibility efforts as part of regional
accreditation within postsecondary education. Over the next few
months, we will be developing materials to assist Accreditation Review
Teams to understand and evaluate institutional evidence of web
accessibility efforts. These documents may also serve to assist
institutions in reviewing and enhancing their reaffirmation materials
as they are developed."
http://ncdae.org/goals/accreditation/reviewer1.php

US Department of Justice to Propose New Rules on Web Accessibility
By Raising the Floor.
"The US Department of Justice has announced that it will release a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on web accessibility for state
and local government websites, in July 2013. This notice also
indicates that DoJ has separated the state and local government rules
(Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act) from the public
accommodation rules (Title III). A Title III NPRM may be released
later, but no confirmation or date is included."
http://raisingthefloor.org/news/us-department-justice-propose-new-rules-web-accessibility

+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Fieldset, Legend, Border-Radius and Box-Shadow
By Roger Johansson.
"The fieldset and legend elements are notorious for being tricky to
style, especially if you want the same result across browsers. Other
than the line wrapping issue I wrote about in How to line wrap text in
legend elements, even in IE, you may run into problems and differences
related to padding, backgrounds and positioning of the legend
element..."
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201302/fieldset_legend_border-radius_and_box-shadow/

The Problem Of CSS Form Elements
By Gabriele Romanato.
"...Totally taming form elements is impossible due to the lack of
detail in the CSS specification and because of the default styles
applied by Web browsers. However, by following some common practices,
reducing (though not eliminating) the differences and achieving good
visual results are possible."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/27/css-form-elements-problem/

Responsive, Horizontal Multi-Column Layouts
By Jordan Moore.
"When we supply a column-width we don't need to specifiy a
column-count. The browser will automatically fill the available space
with columns until it doesn't need to create an extra column. This
solves the problem of having to specify a width to fit our horizontal
columns into. But what about the problem of fitting the columns into a
window height?..."
http://www.jordanm.co.uk/lab/horizontal-columns

Dig Deep into CSS Linear Gradients
By Ana Tudor.
"I had no idea how powerful CSS gradients could be until late 2011,
when I found the CSS3 Patterns Gallery made by Lea Verou. The idea
that you can obtain many shapes using just gradients was a starting
point for many CSS experiments I would later do..."
http://hugogiraudel.com/2013/02/04/css-gradients/

Seven Things Still Missing from CSS
By Molly Holzschlag.
"CSS has come a long way but it's not perfect (yet). Molly Holzschlag,
passionate standardista and open web evangelist, quizzed her peers to
find out what they see as the most frustrating aspects of CSS ..."
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/seven-things-still-missing-css

Using White Space For Readability In HTML And CSS
By Louis Lazaris.
"Right up front, I'll offer some simple advice: In production, your
code should be as performance-friendly as possible..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/19/using-white-space-for-readability-in-html-and-css/

+03: EVENTS.

Accessibility for UX Designers
April 9, 2013.
Ottawa, Canada
http://a11y-for-ux.eventbrite.ca/

John Slatin AccessU
May 14-16, 2013.
Austin, Texas.
http://www.knowbility.org/v/john-slatin-accessu/

CSSConf
May 28, 2013.
Amelia Island, Florida, U.S.A.
http://cssconf.com/

Interlink Conference
June 5-6, 2013.
Vancouver, Canada
http://interlinkconference.com/

Modern Web Accessibility
June 17-19, 2013.
Essen, Germany
http://modernwebaccessibility.com/

Front-End Design Conference
June 21-22, 2013.
Saint Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A.
http://frontenddesignconference.com/

+04: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE.

Web Accessibility for Information Architects - Part 2
By Caitlin Cashin.
"This post is the second in a two-part series about Accessibility and
Information Architecture by Deque Director of Consulting Methodology &
Quality, Glenda Sims.  In Part I, Glenda provided a breakdown of what
constitutes solid and weak information architecture, from and
accessibility standpoint. Part I of Web Accessibility for Information
Architects can be read here."
http://www.deque.com/web-accessibility-information-architects-part-2

+05: HTML5.

Link
By Ian Devlin.
"We all know about the a element and we use it in our work everyday.
Every HTML page that we create is likely to have at least one a
element within it. But have you ever looked at the specification for
this vital element?"
http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2013/02/html5/link

HTML5 Forms Introduction and New Attributes
By Richard Clark.
"No doubt you interact with at least one form on the Web every day..."
http://html5doctor.com/html5-forms-introduction-and-new-attributes/

Quick Tip - The HTML5 Context Menu Attribute
By Sara Vieira.
"In this quick tip I want to talk to you about one of HTML5s hidden
beauties, the contextmenu. You have probably never heard of it before,
but I assure you it is one of those attributes that could be really
useful in certain situations."
http://speckyboy.com/2013/02/13/quick-tip-the-html5-context-menu-attribute-2/

+06: JAVASCRIPT.

(Not so) Simple ARIA Tree Views and Screen Readers
By Jason Kiss.
"I started testing a number of screen readers with different ARIA tree
views. It turns out there's a bit going on with screen readers and
tree views, so the research got a little lengthy. It also turns out
that there's significant variability across screen readers in how they
handle different ARIA tree views. I found no single way to build..."
http://www.accessibleculture.org/articles/2013/02/not-so-simple-aria-tree-views-and-screen-readers/

JavaScript Functions Explained
By Mark Daggett.
"Based on my readership I have to assume most of you are familiar with
JavaScript already. Therefore, it may seem odd to include a post on
functions. After all, they are one of the most rudimentary components
of JavaScript. My assertion is this, just as a person can speak a
language without the ability to read or write it, so too can
developers use functions in JavaScript and yet be blissfully unaware
of their complexities..."
http://markdaggett.com/blog/2013/02/15/functions-explained/

Two Ways to Set a Conditional Breakpoint in JavaScript
By Jonathan Creamer.
"Debugging JavaScript can be a tedious process. Especially when
debugging a function that is called many times in an application.
There may be some kind of utility function in an app that processes
data, but there's a bug with one of the values..."
http://freshbrewedcode.com/jonathancreamer/2013/02/19/two-ways-to-set-a-conditional-breakpoint-in-javascript/

+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

W3Conf Presenation Videos
By W3C.
Videos from the W3Conf are now available. They include presenations by
Léonie Watson on accessibility and Eric Meyer on CSS.
http://www.youtube.com/user/W3Conf/videos

There Is No Mobile Internet!
By Marek Wolski.
"It's time to stop thinking about the Internet and online
communication in the context of a device, be it desktop, tablet or
mobile..."
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/25/there-is-no-mobile-internet/

+08 STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS.

Hey -O- Let's Go!
By David Story.
"So the news we were all dreading came to pass. Opera will drop
Presto, in favour of WebKit. Four becomes Three. Only one browser
engine remains where the dominant contributions come from an
independent vendor who don't have a vested interest in a large native
ecosystem. What does this mean for Opera, and the Web at large?"
http://generatedcontent.org/post/43036827576/hey-o-lets-go

+09: TOOLS.

Introducing ChromeVox
By Google.
ChromeVox is a screen reader for Chrome which brings the speed,
versatility, and security of Chrome to visually impaired users.
http://www.chromevox.com/

Hangout Captions
"Hangout Captions is an app that connects live transcription services
directly into a Google+ Hangout, improving accessibility for
participants who are deaf or hard of hearing."
https://hangout-captions.appspot.com/

+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

Text Resizing Tips
By Emily Coward.
"Tips for making sure people can resize the text on your website with
content becoming lost or obscured."
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2013/text-resizing-tips/

Setting Weights And Styles With the font-face Declaration
By Laura Franz.
"If people are on your website, they're probably either skimming
quickly, looking for something, or they've found what they're looking
for and want to read it as easily as possible. Either way, keeping
text readable will help them achieve their goal..."
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/14/setting-weights-and-styles-at-font-face-declaration/

[Section one ends.]

++ SECTION TWO:

+11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Dreamweaver Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/dreamweaver.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

Flash Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/flash.html

Information Architecture Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

XML Information.
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]

++END NOTES.

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+ SIGN OFF.

Until next time,

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
mailto:lcarlson at d.umn.edu

[Issue ends.]