Sunday, August 13, 2006
Dive into Accessibility indeed
Validated XHTML
This ensures that the code that we have used on this site validates against the W3C's strict standard. As more and more assistive technology (such as a Braille reader, a screen reader, TTY, etc.) is using this standard to build against, we can be sure of making our site accessible to the widest audience.
Validated CSS
Again, by validating our style sheets against the W3C gold standard, we can make our site accessible to everybody with a DDA compliant browser or other assistive technology.
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
All pages have been validated against standard using “Bobby.” This service allows us to test web pages and help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, such as Section 508 and the W3C's WCAG.
Section 508 Guidelines
The Section 508 guidelines have been reviewed and implemented. All pages are in compliance.
All pages on this site use structured semantic markup.
H2
tags are used for main titles,H3
tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressingALT+INSERT+3
.
Via Mark Pilgrim, Accessibility Statement @ SoundsDirty.com (not safe for work)
I'm not sure why I found it surprising that a porn site (need I even bother mentioning this isn't work safe?) would bother with web accessibility standards, but I did. Porn sites in general have always pushed the limits of web technology (they were early adoptors of micropayment schemes, web subscriptions, flash, Java Applets) and I suppose that making a site accessible to everyone is just an opportunity to make more money (Playboy in braille anyone?).
So if a porn site can be accessible, then gosh darn it! So will my site! So I've been playing around with accessibility validator and adding some more markup to make my site here a bit more accessible.
Why not?
None are worthy to park in this spot
Last week I lost some pictures, including a few of some heavily protected parking spots in a parking garage. Well, tonight Spring and I went back to City Place (where the aformentioned parking garage is located) for some window shopping (“Would you just look at the contents of that store? What hideous furniture!”) and this time, I got the picture:
I also got this lovely shot of the warning sticker clearly saying that pedestrians are not allowed to stand in the space, and of course, the only way to see such warning was to stand in the disallowed space.
Figures.