Category: accessibility

10 Terrific Tech Blogs by Women

Tech tips, geeky how-tos, thoughtful analysis of issues, news about the latest gadgets, ideas for improving your blog—you’ll find it all in these 10 terrific tech and science blogs. They just happen to be written by women.

I. Hacker Chick

hacker chick graphic imageThe Hacker Chick Blog is a beautiful starting point. I say beautiful because the graphics on this blog are stunning: everything from the image representing the hacker chick (software developer Abby Fichtner) to the icons and images used as illustrations are visually outstanding. Hacker Chick writes about designing WordPress themes, agile computing, programming, social media, and business.

In Build Your Startup From the Heart, she said,

The world, it seems, is changing. If you ask Daniel Pink, he’ll say that our “left-brained” aptitudes — logical, analytical skills, the types of things schools reward us for — are no longer sufficient if we want to remain competitive. These are, after all, the very things being automated by computers and outsourced at rates we can’t compete with if we want to pay our mortgages, or, say, eat.

If we truly want to succeed, we need to pull in those right-brained skills that our schools & employers have tried so hard to beat out of us — artistry, empathy, play, and story telling.

You don’t find many programmers who think this way, or who can pull it together the way Hacker Chick does.

II. Pars3c

star trail from pars3cElizabeth Howell has her head in the stars with her blog Pars3c. The blog is pronounced “PAR-seck,” and astronomical term that gives you an idea of the topics you’ll find on the blog. This blog is about astronomy, spaceflight, science and telescopes. Big telescopes.

In 500 explosions, 500 reasons to love satellites, Elizabeth said,

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again — the greatest thing about space-borne observatories is they have 24-hour darkness to enjoy. This makes it easier to catch fleeting cosmic events, even explosions.

Like that moment last month when NASA’s Swift telescope saw its 500th gamma-ray burst.

III. Blogger Buster

blogger busterBlogger Buster is for Google Blogger users. It’s written by Amanda Kay. Blogger templates and tutorials are the heart of this blog.

For example, you can learn about 90 Related Posts with Thumbnails for Blogger – New Version by BloggerWidgets

Aneesh of Blogger Widgets has developed a new “Related Posts” script for Blogger which displays thumbnails of images in addition to linked post titles.

In appearance, this Blogger “add-on” is similar to the LinkWithin script. Each section is highlighted in a complementary colour when the mouse hovers over it, and the entire section is clickable, leading to the URL of the “related post” displayed.

IV. Girl Developer

girl developerGirl Developer is written by Sara, a software engineer. Her topics range among .net and WAN, tech events, software reviews, and life as a developer. There’s always a dash of style and humor in the mix. Recently she wrote about Meeting Wendy Friedlander, a fellow developer who is undergoing cancer treatment.

Meeting Wendy prompted her to put together a fund-raising dinner:

I put this dinner together because I think it would be wonderful if we could all help Wendy a little as a community. She’s one of our own and it really could be any one of us. We’re having a dinner for Wendy, and if you’re in the NYC area and can make it we’d love to have you. It will be a great time of fellowship with other developers and I’m looking forward to it. If you can’t make the dinner or aren’t from the area there is a paypal link here for donations.

V. Do it Myself Blog

do it myselfDo it Myself Blog is the work of Glenda Watson Hyatt, the left-thumb blogger—so called because she types only with her left thumb due to her cerebral palsy. Glenda writes about accessibility on the web and in life, about events she attends and speeches she gives with the help of her computer’s voice, about new technology, entrepreneurship, and trying to find an accessible bathroom while at tech events.

Lately Glenda has been searching for the perfect app for her iPad that will help her with chores like making hair appointments and ordering burgers. In The iPad as an Affordable Communicator: A Follow-up Review, she commented

While I was at the mall last Tuesday, i also made a hair appointment. In the old days I would have typed a note before leaving home. Or, I would have asked Darrell to call for an appointment.

Tuesday i pulled out my iPad, typed a message in the Proloquo2Go app and showed it to the receptionist. An appointment was made for the following day.

All is not golden with the Proloquo2Go app, however, as Glenda discovers when she tries to order food.

VI. Apophenia

danah boyd initialsApophenia is danah boyd’s blog. This blog deals with big ideas. It focuses on issues: trends, analysis, data about how young people use technology, and topics like privacy.

In “for the lolz”: 4chan is hacking the attention economy , danah explains what 4chan is with a “Newbie Note” before she begins her discussion of the site:

Newbie note: If you have never heard of 4chan, start with the Wikipedia entry and not the website itself. The site tends to offend many adults’ sensibilities. As one of my friends put it, loving LOLcats or rickrolling as outputs is like loving a tasty hamburger; visiting 4chan is like visiting the meat factory. At some point, it’d probably help to visit the meat factory, but that might make you go vegetarian.

danah boyd is quite possibly one the the smartest people on the planet, so running big ideas through her mind and getting to read the results of her thinking on her blog is a true privilege.

VII. The Female Perspective of Computer Science

female perspective of computer science logoThe Female Perspective of Computer Science is from Gail Carmichael, who is working on a doctorate in Computer Science. Her fields of study include educational entertainment and augmented reality, both of which get discussed on the blog. Other topics include visual computing, games, events, computer science, and women.

Recently she wrote about Getting the Hang of iPhone Development.

I needed to learn how to develop for the iPhone since the projects I want to work on next will be games for the device. This task was somewhat daunting, given that I hadn’t really even used a Mac before, let alone Objective-C or Xcode. Luckily, there are some really great resources out there that you should check out if you are also just getting started.

So far, the most invaluable resource for me has been the Stanford iTunes U lectures on iPhone development. After watching the lectures via iTunes, you can download all the course materials, including slides and assignments.

A free course from Standford so you can learn how to develop for iPhone? Dang, that’s great information!

VIII. Geek Feminism Blog

geek feminismGeek Feminism Blog has over a dozen writers, mostly women. A few male feminists in the mix is a good thing. The range of topics you find there is as wide and deep as the minds of its many contributors. The frequent linkspam posts are a great source for exploring the blogosphere on topics related to technology and women. Other topics you might find explored there are comics, conferences, gender, open source, programming, star trek, and just about anything else you can think of that interests geeks.

In July 6th is the last day for super early bird rate for Grace Hopper Celebration, Terri tells us,

If you haven’t heard of GHC before, it’s a really amazing conference for women involved in technology (especially geek feminists!). Not only does it tip the usual ratios on their heads (hello, >90% women! And yes, that means men are welcome.) it’s one of very few conferences where I can say that even the most technical talks are interesting and well-presented.

IX. CSS, JavaScript and XHTML Explained and Standardista

standardistaCSS, JavaScript and XHTML Explained is by Estele Weyl. The title is self-describing, but doesn’t completely cover the range of what you find there. You might learn about conferences, girl geeks, browser quirks, accessibility and other web development related topics. Estele has another blog called Standardista: CSS3, JavaScript and HTML5 Explained that is similar but devoted to newer technologies such as HTML5. As the technologies move forward, the newer blog may get the most additions.

Estele is great at putting things in an organized matrix to help you quickly see what is what with a topic. For example, in HTML5 Input Attributes & Browser Support, she created a handy table to show which browsers support which of the new HTML5 form elements.

X. MacTips

mac tipsI saved a great one for last: MacTips, the very helpful guide to Macs, iPhones and iPads from Miraz Jordan. The tips never end at MacTips. For example, Use Safari 5′s Reader for easier reading on the web and How to change app Preferences on an iPhone.

Miraz always has clear directions with informative illustrations and screen shots to guide you through all things Mac.

Cross-posted in slightly different form at BlogHer.

3 Tools to Check Color Contrast

Color contrast is a major accessibility issue on a web page. The greater the amount of contrast, the better the readability is for a page. The most contrast you can get is black text on a white background. Things go downhill from there. The degree of readability loss with colors other than black and white can be determined by a mathematical formula.

Three of the best tools for checking color contrast are:

Each of the tools will report back to you with a score for your page’s contrast. If your colors don’t have enough contrast for readability, you’ll get the bad news quickly with one of these tools.

Use the scope attribute with table headers

Two simple steps that improve the accessibility of data tables are

  1. use table headers appropriately
  2. use the scope attribute with table headers

The table header tag is <th>. You can assign a <th> element to the any column or row in a table where appropriate. Any row or column with a <th> can be given the attribute scope, which defines whether the heading is associated with a row or a column.

Here is some abbreviated example code for a three column table. Each row would contain a chapter number, title, and author’s name:

<table>
<caption>InterACT with Web Standards Contents and Authors</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Chapter Number</th>
<th scope="col">Chapter Title</th>
<th scope="col">Author's Name</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">1</th>
<td>InterACT</td>
<td>Leslie Jensen-Inman</td>
</tr>
. . .
</table>

CSS can be used to style <th> and <td> elements any way you want. The default browser style is bold and centered for <th>. More important than appearance, however, is the semantic meaning carried by the <th> element with a scope attribute. It provides additional information about the data in the table that clarifies its meaning and purpose. It associates the data in a row or column with the title in the row or column header.

If the example table were finished, it would contain 26 rows. In a long table such as that, strong semantic clues to meaning in the markup add important accessibility helps that benefit all users. I’m not saying this right—even in a small table, semantic markup is important.

Table headers with scope attributes are one piece of table accessibility best practice.

Optimize your writing for users with impaired vision

Users with screen reader devices will scan and skim your web page in a manner somewhat similar to the way a visual user will. Screen readers can be programmed to read only headings, subheadings and links. When something of interest pops out from this “skimming” process, the user can stop and have all the information in a particular section of the page read completely.

The first step is to write meaningful headings and subheadings that contain important words and phrases. The first paragraph under each heading should clarify what the section of the page content is about.

Next, make sure that link text is informative. Link text should give users some idea what they will find when they click. Link text like “here” or “click here” is not informative. The link text in this example is descriptive and informative: Google is trying a similar thing with HTML5 Rocks. It’s obvious that a click will take the user to HTML5 Rocks.

Finally, write alt text that gives an alternative description of the content or function of an image. For example, in book reviews such as the recent one of Mobile Design and Development, the alt text for the image of the book cover is “get Mobile Design and Development at Amazon.” While it does not say that the image is a book cover, it does tell the user what happens if the image is clicked–functional alt text.

These tips are best practice for all users. Optimizing your writing for users who are surfing your page with their ears will improve your page for users who are scanning the page visually, too. Like many practices that have been adopted as accessibility requirements, good writing benefits all users, not just those with visual impairments.

Useful links: Usability, graphic design, HTML5 Rocks

The You-Don’t-Matter Website is a look at usability and accessibility for some large brands.

Graphic Design Theory: 50 Resources and Articles is from noupe.

Apple’s attempt to wow the world with HTML5 flopped. Now Google is trying a similar thing with HTML5 Rocks. There are tutorials, Chrome developer tools, and the promise that the material in the playground and presentations is open source. Let’s see if Google can do it right.

Useful Links: SVG, BAM, InterACT

Doug Shepers from the W3C put together a slideshow in SVG, HTML, CSS and JavaScript that is worth your time. It’s an SVG demo. Play with it. View it in the latest Firefox.

BAM or Blog Accessibility Mastermind is a six lesson course offered by Glenda Watson Hyatt of Do It Myself Blog. I haven’t looked inside the course, but I suspect it’s a good one.

Based on the interest and number of questions Derek Featherstone got during his accessibility presentation at the recent InterACT Summit, I’d say interest from educators about accessibility is very high right now. There’s a free online course from the Web Standards Project (WaSP) InterACT curriculum about accessibility. The course is a perfect resource for teachers. It’s a stand alone course. If you are teaching with InterACT with Web Standards and its chapters on accessibility, the online material a great time saver. Online materials such as exam questions, grading matrices, assignments, objectives, and resources go hand in hand with the material in the book.

Now Available! InterACT with Web Standards: A Holistic Approach to Web Design

InterACT with Web Standards coverInterACT with Web Standards: a Holistic Approach to Web Design is available today.

This announcement is a BIG DEAL.

This book puts everything you need to teach a class in web design or development with web standards into your hands. The book is easy to use in connection with InterACT’s 17 courses in 6 learning tracks making it the perfect tool and resource for teaching or learning contemporary web design best practices.

If you are a student who wants to learn about building a web site with web standards, this book will lead you there.

For educators, your semester will be a snap to plan with this book. It’s all right there for you.

The book is published by New Riders (2010). There are 10 authors. The major contributor being Chris Mills, with additional expertise from Erin Anderson, Virginia DeBolt, Derek Featherstone, Lars Gunther, Denise Jacobs, Leslie-Jensen-Inman, Christopher Schmitt, Glenda Sims and Aarron Walter. I’m really proud to have been a small part of making the book a reality, because I think the book is going to be very important to students and teachers who are looking for the a reliable resource for web design best practices.

In addition to the writers, a number of other people worked to bring this book to life. They include Aarron Walter as project manager, Patrick Lauke as technical editor, Jeff Riley as development editor, Leslie Jensen-Inman as creative director and Jessi Taylor as book and site designer.

Many kudos go to Leslie Jensen-Inman and Jessi Taylor. When you see this book and hold it in your hands you will realize what a work of art it is from a design and typography point of view. It’s a beautiful book.

Take a look at the table of contents:

  1. InterACT
  2. Tools
  3. Learning on the Web
  4. Internet Fundamentals
  5. Writing for the Web
  6. Information Architecture Intro
  7. Site Planning
  8. Content Analysis
  9. Content Strategy
  10. HTML Intro
  11. CSS Intro
  12. <head>
  13. Headings and Paragraphs
  14. Whitespace
  15. Links
  16. Images
  17. Lists
  18. Tables
  19. Forms
  20. Floats
  21. Positioning
  22. Accessibility Intro
  23. Accessibility Helps
  24. Accessibility Testing
  25. Bringing it All Together
  26. Index

The InterACT with Web Standards book site has everything you need to know. There, you’ll find links to purchase the book, links to code examples from the book, links to bonus content, and links to the sample project. The site has links to information about InterACT, OWEA, and the Web Standards Project. You can take a peek inside the book, read some reviews, grab links to all the resources cited in the book, and MUCH MORE.

Buy now and take advantage of this limited time offer tweeted by @waspinteract.

InterACT With Web Standards, the first book from The Web Standards Project, is out. Save 35% on it with code INTERACT. http://cot.ag/9RS4rEMon May 17 16:00:20 via CoTweetWaSP InterAct
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