Category: accessibility

Useful links: mobile WordPress, FCC, Wired Pen, women in science

11 Ways to Create a Mobile Friendly WordPress Site lists plugins and apps that can help with your WordPress site. I need to check out some of these myself. I’m thinking I like either MoFuse or Mobify. Do any of you have an opinion about using either of these plug-ins? I’d appreciate any input.

US Court Rules Against FCC and Net Neutrality. Boo Hiss.

Wired Pen is my recommended blog of the day. Thoughtful, intelligent writing on a variety of topics around tech and media.

Women in Science is a Flickr set from the Smithsonian. Why doesn’t somebody start a modern-day set of Women in Science on Flickr? Why don’t you? I promise I’ll start a public Flickr set for women in tech as soon as I can . . . I’m swamped right now but maybe by next week. Be watching. ADDENDUM: Well, I just did it, time or no time. You’ll find the new group on Flickr. Join in and share your photos of women in technology.

Useful Links: use :focus, some new product, ad culture

Whenever you use :hover, also use :focus from 456 Berea Street explains why this is an accessibility issue.

Apple came out with some new product this week. Maybe you heard about it. I think it made the news. Okay—seriously, amid all the posturings and opinions about why the iPad was a great thing or a terrible thing, came this post from Daring Fireball: The Kids are All Right. This one appeals to me as an educator who thinks that all change is a trade off, and all trade offs are an opportunity for learning.

Which came first, the ads or the cultural change? at In Women We Trust shows some real ads from about 50 years ago. Work with me here: Mentally make those images reflect the present, and make those women the women in tech, where the images are still pretty much true to the current culture. Is this the way men should be remembered for their leadership in the tech community?

Useful Links: iPad rumors, Mini-Bang, Facebook Fan Pages, POUR websites

From the don’t you love to speculate about the iPad rumors (or iPad competition) department, here’s news about Qualcomm’s Multi-Fold Device and about the future of the iSlate and Magic Slate names, and a story speculating about Verizon which would affect both the iPhone and the iPad.

At CERN, scientists managed to create mini-versions of the big bang with the Hadron Large Collider. See a summary and some video.  That’s more physics news that Internet tech news, but still interesting.

I collected a bunch of resources for creating a Facebook Fan Page and posted it on BlogHer. If you’re thinking your college or business or website needs a Facebook fan page, here’s a helpful collection of resources.

Constructing a POUR website at WebAIM refers to Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. I think I linked earlier to Glenda Watson Hyatt’s free ebook called How POUR is Your Blog, which is a PDF document. The WebAIM info is in HTML.

Useful links: Jane McGonigal, Aviary in ed, hints in text boxes

New Game Designed to EVOKE a Better World tells about several projects involving game playing that Jane McGonigal is leading. These virtual reality games are designed to solve difficult real life problem and make real life changes. This excellent article by Kim Pearson also contains video of a recent TED Talk by McGonigal, which is a must-see.

Aviary continues to grow and improve. It’s now available in Google Docs. This is good news for educators, as this video shows. Aviary is readying an education program. If you’d like to be a beta tester for this education program, sign up here.

Don’t put hints inside text boxes in web forms from UX Matters give some excellent reasons why you should stop teaching anyone to do this, if you still are.

Useful links: High Ed Websites, Knowbility, SXSW podcasts

Showcase of Academic and Higher Education Websites at Smashing Magazine lets you see quite a few academic sites that pass Smashing’s standards as being well designed.

The Knowbility Crew

These fine folks, with Knowbility Executive Director Sharron Rush at the top left, are the Knowbility crew who managed the Knowbility booth during the Trade Show at SXSWi. The Accessible Insights Blog from Knowbility recently moved, so check them out in their new home.

In an astonishing feat of speed, SXSW is already making podcasts of some of the main events such as keynotes available. See SXSW Interactive Videos and Podcasts.

Useful Links: Captions, your college on Facebook, Web Education Rocks at SXSW

The Future will be Captioned at the YouTube blog explains their new auto-captioning function, which works only for English videos at this point.

I saw a presentation from the social media team at Central New Mexico Community College last week. They talked about how they interact with the college’s 25,000 students on Facebook. The rule they gave for social media interaction was 80% fun and 20% serious. They are getting good results with what they are doing. If your college is not having much luck getting into social media, take a look at the way CNM is doing things. It’s an instructive model.

sxsw interactiveWill you be at SXSW Interactive? I hope you’ll attend the Web Education Rocks: 2010 WaSP InterAct Annual Meeting. In the past, this session was billed as the WaSP annual meeting, but this year most of the things going on within WaSP relate to InterAct–both the web standards curriculum and the web standards book. You’ll find out what the new courses are that have been added to the curriculum, and more about the book that will come out soon. Hope to see you there.

Useful links: Text alternatives, IE6 funeral, accessible Twitter

HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives is a new draft from the W3C written by Steve Faulkner. It gives tips and many excellent examples of best practices in the use of alternative text.

How to have fun in Denver on March 4: attend the funeral for IE6. Yep, sounds like a fun party. Information at IE6 Funeral. May I add for all of us, “Good riddance!”

Accessible Twitter is now online in beta. Accessible Insights blog had A word with the accessible Dennis Lembree on Accessible Twitter talking about it, and offering a couple of interesting links.