Useful links: Thatcher on accessibility, ReadSmart, Opera turns 15

A look at whitehouse.gov, a tool to improve reading comprehension, Opera celebrates its 15th with a retro bash.

Accessibility of the White House Web Site by Jim Thatcher is a quick survey some of the accessibility issues that could be easily corrected on the WhiteHouse.gov web site. Do you have these problems on your web site?

How text formatting can enhance the readability and persuasiveness of text at HFI Connect gives the results of a test of ReadSmart technology, which makes subtle changes in the formatting of text that are proven to improve comprehension.

Opera celebrates its 15th birthday with a retro celebration splash page that you should see before it disappears. While you’re there, download the latest version of this great browser.

A netbook question

The first ever poll on Web Teacher; giving Poll Daddy a try.

The first ever poll on Web Teacher; giving Poll Daddy a try.

Product Reviews on Web Teacher

My policy on paid reviews. More. . .

I mostly review books, web apps, and products like Dreamweaver.

First, I don’t get paid to review anything. I do receive the books I’m reviewing free from the publishers. I’m on a few publishers mailing lists, and when a book is released that I want to review–which includes books about HTML, CSS, graphics, microformats, standards, and accessibility–I’ll request a copy. Since I’m not on every publishers mailing list, the books I get to review are concentrated on just a few publishers. (I’d be happy to hear from other publishers, too.)

When I first started reviewing books I was pretty critical. Frankly, the books were terrible. But as awareness of standards and accessibility have evolved, books have improved, too. My reviews have grown less critical and more favorable as a result. Even though I’ve written my own books on my topics of interest here at Web Teacher, I do give honest reviews of all books and don’t try to bash other writers in order to promote my books instead. I want to help you learn it or teach it right. If I find a book that will help you do that, I’ll say so.

I do link to Amazon for the books I review. So if you buy one from my link I might make a few cents. This is not a common thing, I don’t sell very many books from this web site, but I do make small sums that way.

In terms of apps, I review the ones I’m interested in for some reason. I’ve reviewed a number of photo sharing sites, graphic software sites, Twitter tools and such. Mostly these are just sites I stumble on and want to try out and talk about.

I’ve reviewed Dreamweaver quite extensively. Normally I just do this because I want to. However, for Dreamweaver CS4, I was working on a book for Adobe and did receive the software as part of the job. Not the entire Creative Suite, just Dreamweaver. As long as Dreamweaver is a tool in use for teaching web design and development classes, I’ll continue to talk about it, whether I’m writing for Adobe or not.

That’s it: my policy. I’ve never made enough money from this blog to even pay for the monthly hosting fees, so there’s no one influencing my product reviews but me.

Summary of eHow articles for April

A list of the articles I published on eHow in April. How-to galore.

Spring Flowers

It’s spring. It’s beautiful. It’s renewal, life-affirming renewal. Get outside and take a walk.

Here’s a list of what I published on eHow in April.

Defining front end engineering

Video of Nate Koechle from Yahoo! about what front end developers actually do. The reason I’m hoping you’ll take the time to watch this video is because it so clearly states, from an industry perspective, why the WaSP InterAct curriculum project is so important and what it’s actually about.

Nate Koechle from Yahoo! talks about what front end engineers actually do. Don’t start it unless you have plenty of time to watch, it’s nearly an hour and a half long. But it’s worth it, especially if you are teaching HTML, CSS, JavaScript, web development, or any related class.

The reason I’m hoping you’ll take the time to watch this video is because it so clearly states, from an industry perspective, why the WaSP InterAct curriculum project is so important and what it’s actually about. Industry needs graduates who know what Nate is talking about when they are fresh out of school. InterAct means to help you achieve that goal in your own curriculum.

I found this at Yahoo! Video, where you can find links to other talks by Nate Koechley. Nate is an excellent lecturer, well organized, clear, with well presented material. A lesson can be learned  by educators just from watching how he moves through the long talk and keeps you with him. And, the talk is an outline of what curriculum needs to be.

Eye Candy and Kicking Ass

ALA’s article In Defense of Eye Candy gets me thinking. More . . .

In Defense of Eye Candy at A List Apart is a discussion of interesting concepts about design. It’s must reading for all web developers.  It talks about how perceptions affect usefulness; it’s a fascinating take on the idea of design and usability.

As I read it I kept thinking of  initial reactions to Susan Boyle. Although the article was not about her, it did suggest why the initial reaction to her was not positive. It doesn’t explain why that reaction changed the moment she opened her mouth to sing. Is there some trigger that makes less attractive design work as well as attractive design once we “get it?” You can’t hear that voice and not get it. At that point, the design package no longer matters. Why?

If you become a kick ass user (to quote Kathy Sierra) of something, does design cease to matter? Take Microsoft Word for example. I’ve used it for years and still willingly tell anyone how much I hate  it. I think that’s a design issue. It’s almost impossible to figure out how to do certain things, to become a kick ass user of Word. I spent a long time the other day trying to figure out how to make text flow from one text box into another and I could never find the answer. It would be nice to kick ass with a tool you have to use.

I need Word open its mouth and sing, so I can “get” it.

The article at A List Apart talks about interface, how understanding interface is improved by attractive interface. Maybe in Susan Boyle’s case, her voice becomes the interface. Her voice is so enormously attractive that the rest of the interface ceases to matter. What’s Word got going for it?

Useful Links: CaptionTube, Standards in Ed, Canvas element demos

Links to CaptionTube, an interview with educators advocating web standards, canvas element demos.

CaptionTube is the latest from YouTube. This is accessibility technology right in the browser using a time line-based system that looks and feels like a video editor. It is capable of numerous languages.

Web Standards in Education is an interview with Christopher Murphy and Nicklas Persson from the University of Ulster at Belfast.

Canvas Demos. Demos, tools and tutorials for the HTML canvas element. Go. Subscribe to the feed. Great stuff!