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030627 14:35 Web development : accessibility

Newbies go away! Just came across the OU's Advice to visually impaired visitors, which has got to be the most patronizing accessibility statement I've seen on a website so far:

The Open University website uses embedded tables and popup windows. If you are an experienced internet user this may be no problem. [...]

If you're not experienced, you better go somewhere else.

If you are comfortable with navigating complex websites and want to know about the courses we offer visit the Courses and Qualifications website using this link to go to the home page.

...which features - apart from the 'embedded tables' that they already warn about - missing ALT tags, numerous FONT tags, and masses of links not separated by more than whitespace, which would be better put in a bullet list. The stylesheet in its entirety consist of color declarations for the links. That's it.

Well, at least they don't claim to be accessible. One does wonder, though, why they bother with this little considerate technique:

In line with our mission to improve accessibility, the CATER website has been developed and will evolve with accessibility in mind. As such the use of the separated O U has been chosen as the abbreviation for the Open University, rather than the standard OU, throughout this website. This has been done to aid screen-reader software access for blind and partially sighted students.

030626 14:11 Intellectual property

Congress might enhance the public domain.

The Public Domain Enhancement Act offers American copyright owners with continuing interest in works an easy way to maintain their copyrights while allowing abandoned works to enter the public domain. It requires that American copyright owners pay a simple $1 fee to maintain their copyrights 50 years after publication. If the owner fails to pay the $1 fee, the copyright expires and the work enters the public domain.

030625 19:46 Web development : accessibility

The RNIB has redesigned their website. To be honest... looks messy. But at least one can't point it out as the classic example of early accessible webdesign anymore. But - my gawd - what is it with the tables? Why redesign only to put everything into tables? Font tags? I'm shocked. Don't they know anything? So, did they only do it to look better? They got to be kidding!

Accessify.com is also not impressed:

This redesign gave an opportunity to show that an accessible site - and one that itself indirectly promotes the ethic of web accessibility - can be good-looking (but not necessarily in an overtly extravagant way).

[Update 030626 16:27] It was only a matter of time before the re-redesigns would pop up:

030625 19:40 Censorship

Another battle lost in the fight against internet filtering.

According to the opinion, United States v. American Library Association, Congress may require libraries to install Internet filters before they can receive federal money.

030625 19:23 Science Fiction

Some wise words from Warren Ellis which explain recent bad decision-making by TV companies in regard to Scifi shows. While they produce 50s rehashes they drop what people really want. Farscape... Firefly...

030623 21:08 Web development

I've often used a little icon after a link to identify it as an external link and to give people the option to open it in a separate window. I found this useful in a context where people might want to switch back and forth between two pages (see explanation on the help page of my accessibility guide). Of course, this still uses the old and now deprecated target attribute. Shirley Kaiser offers other options in her latest article 'CSS Approaches to External Links'.

030623 19:24 Web development

Jakob Nielsen has briefly turned his attention away from corporate websites to tell us how useful and even profitable small websites can be:

Small sites have two huge advantages over big sites: there are many more of them and they are more specialized and thus more targeted. Small sites speak directly to the specific needs and interests of a committed user community, and thus have much higher value per page view. A site on growing blueberries can be a must-read service for people who farm them, and thus of immense value as a place to promote blueberry-farming equipment.

030618 23:32 War : aftermath

Misinformed or just not paying attention? War poll uncovers fact gap:

A third of the American public believes U.S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. Twenty-two percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons.

030618 23:01 Web development: CSS

Just came across this useful series of tutorials: CSS ain't Rocket Science.

030618 22:58 Web development : accessibility

The most hotly debated issue in accessibility at the moment is accesskeys. Here is the contribution from A List Apart which offers some interesting techniques.

030618 22:35 Web development: standards

Microsoft promises that the next version of Frontpage will write standard-compliant code.

030618 21:25 War : aftermath

The ever-growing US military footprint

Contrary to much of the recent news coverage about Pentagon pronouncements on the US seeking to reduce its presence in Saudi Arabia, the fact of the matter is that when one looks at the big picture, the US has a huge military presence in the region. And it is not going anywhere.

030618 21:05 Intellectual property

In First Monday's June issue: The dead poets society: The copyright term and the public domain by Matthew Rimmer.

In a victory for corporate control of cultural heritage, the Supreme Court of the United States has rejected a constitutional challenge to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 (U.S.) by a majority of seven to two. This paper evaluates the litigation in terms of policy debate in a number of discourses — history, intellectual property law, constitutional law and freedom of speech, cultural heritage, economics and competition policy, and international trade. It argues that the extension of the copyright term will inhibit the dissemination of cultural works through the use of new technologies — such as Eric Eldred's Eldritch Press and Project Gutenberg. It concludes that there is a need to resist the attempts of copyright owners to establish the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 (U.S.) as an international model for other jurisdictions — such as Australia.

0306182053 War : aftermath

Privatisation in Iraq.

030618 20:52 Society / Health

The retro trend in society continues as women are about to loose some fundamental rights, i.e. those over their own bodies.

The measure, which the Republican-led Congress is poised to send to an eager President Bush, addresses late-term abortion, but its supporters hope the inevitable legal challenge will present an opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark Roe vs. Wade decision that properly recognizes a woman's right to privacy.

030618 15:40 Summer

Apologies for the lack of posts here recently. It's summer in Germany... proper summer... 37 degrees C one day last week... summer is something I didn't get during my 12 years of exile in grey old England, where the difference between summer and winter is 5 degrees and people start moaning when the temperature reaches 24. Understandably I'm spending less time at the computer.

030607 20:48 War : aftermath

More from Robert Fisk in Baghdad: One article about what Bush's itinery for his visit to the Iraq should look like and one about the discrepancies between justifying rhetoric and the reality of the situation in Iraq.

...it sounds to me, watching America's awesome control over this part of the world, its massive firepower, bases and personnel across Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Bahrain, Doha, Oman, Yemen and Israel, that this is not just about oil but about the projection of global power by a nation which really does have weapons of mass destruction. No wonder that soldier told me not to go out after dark. He was right. It's no longer safe. And it's going to get much worse.

030606 14:48 Water

The BBC provides a forum for debate and lots of information about one of my pet subjects: water. The results of the vote on how water should be provided, publicly or commercially, presently stand at 86% against privatisation. Make sure to check out he A to Z of water saving tips and inform yourself about the role of water in current conflicts.

030604 14:19 Politics

Surveys suggest global opinion of US on decline.

Some foreign policy specialists expressed concern that the numbers signify a dangerous trend in world opinion that will make US foreign policy tougher to execute.

030602 21:11 Civil liberties

[de] Die USA manövrieren sich langsam aber sicher in die Wirtscahftskrise. Mancher wird sich ein anderes Urlaubsziel suchen in den nächsten Jahren. Telepolis berichtet wie Touristen zur Zeit behandelt werden.

030602 19:36 Media monopolies

FCC Approves Media Consolidation. Media is becoming even more homogenous, boring, less reliable and less creative.

[de] Hier das ganze auf deutsch: USA: Medienmonopole können wachsen.

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