Page 2 of 2

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:02 pm
by Obadiah
much appologies then....and sorry if i offended anyone 8O ....i suppose you can use javascript as an alternative
means....http://www.w3cshools.comhere is a place i go to for all my coding first when dealing with css and javascript....once again im partial to css because its a bit easier for me to write and understand

p.s. you keep saying disabilities...what type of disabilities are you talking about

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:06 pm
by Oren
feyd wrote:It's nice to know you care about people with diabilities. ;)
Indeed. I don't have any diabilities and I don't know anyone who has which will agree to test my sites, but I still do my best to make my sites accessible to all kind of people and I think of people with diabilities all the time while making a site.
I make sure that all the code is valid, and I use online/automated tools to make sure my sites are WAI AAA, Section 508 and friends, I also make a speed test to make sure that loading the site won't take forever for 56K users (maximum 10 seconds). I check the site with CSS off to get the feeling of how other people may experience it and I almost never ever use JavaScript and when I do, it's just to get cool effects not something fundamental.
I check the site with IE, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, a PDA, webTV Viewer and with some online simulators.

I know I went off topic a bit... Sorry for that, but this whole thing is very important in my opinion.
Here are few tools that I use:

Lynx Viewer
How your website looks to color blind people
Accessibility Color Wheel
http://webxact.watchfire.com/ <-- This link isn't working for me when I click on it here but it works when I type it manually. I guess they are blocking some referrers for some reason or whatever that would be, so just copy and paste the URL into the location bar :P

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:11 pm
by feyd
Obadiah wrote:much appologies then....and sorry if i offended anyone 8O ....i suppose you can use javascript as an alternative
means....http://www.w3cshools.comhere is a place i go to for all my coding first when dealing with css and javascript....once again im partial to css because its a bit easier for me to write and understand

p.s. you keep saying disabilities...what type of disabilities are you talking about
Any and all disabilities, it doesn't matter. If the site can't be used without CSS and Javascript, it better have a lot of added value somewhere else, because you lose lots of points if it doesn't.

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:25 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Accessibility matters. Target is finding that out the hard way right now.

Obadiah, when you get a chance, fire up Firefox, install the Web Developer extension, then use it to turn off CSS, images, javascript, page colors and everything else. Then look at how your code renders. If it still makes logical sense as straight markup, you are on to something. If things stop working or don't render properly, you may want to rethink your markup.

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:51 pm
by Obadiah
im really afraid to try....css is my thing....without css my designs go to crap....now i feel like its a programming/webdesign crutch....geez i know i need to know more now :wink:

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:04 pm
by Luke
no no css is fine... actually it usually helps with usability. Just make sure that you MARKUP is good...

OH... and there are MANY MANY threads here about web design/usability as well as an entire forum dedicated to it. I don't see the need to carry on this conversation here.

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:19 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Yeah, what ninja said...

But really, code for your audience, but make sure it is usable at any level. Test it using nothing but markup for accessibility, but don't abandon the styles.