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Thread: Hi everyone

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Tim Rutherford
Date: Tue, Feb 20 2007 3:00PM
Subject: Hi everyone
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My name is Tim and I am a beginning web designer that wants to start off by being accessibility
focused. I think that you guys may be way over my head because until I joined this list, I had never
heard of microformats and stuff. Also somone mentioned things that was included in the HTML 2.0
specification and I started with HTML 4.01.
Is this the right forum to get started or could you all suggest another mailing list that I can join
?

Ciao,
TR


From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Tue, Feb 20 2007 3:10PM
Subject: Re: Hi everyone
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Tim Rutherford wrote:
> My name is Tim and I am a beginning web designer that wants to start off by being accessibility
> focused. I think that you guys may be way over my head because until I joined this list, I had never
> heard of microformats and stuff. Also somone mentioned things that was included in the HTML 2.0
> specification and I started with HTML 4.01.

Don't worry, we're just divining some meaning out of the vague W3C spec
by digging deep into the annals of "what did the original authors
intend". Markup archeology, if you will...

> Is this the right forum to get started or could you all suggest another mailing list that I can join
> ?

This is indeed the right place for accessibility stuff, and mostly
friendly to newcomers that show a bit of self-initiative...don't let the
more philosophical musings here scare you :)

Other good lists for more general markup and such would be the WSG list
http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/ and webdesign-L
http://www.webdesign-l.com/

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

From: John Foliot - Stanford Online Accessibility Program
Date: Tue, Feb 20 2007 3:20PM
Subject: Re: Hi everyone
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Tim Rutherford wrote:
> My name is Tim and I am a beginning web designer that wants to start
> off by being accessibility
> focused. I think that you guys may be way over my head because until
> I joined this list, I had never
> heard of microformats and stuff. Also somone mentioned things that
> was included in the HTML 2.0
> specification and I started with HTML 4.01.
> Is this the right forum to get started or could you all suggest
> another mailing list that I can join ?
>
> Ciao,
> TR
>

Tim,

Welcome aboard. Yes, sometimes the discussion may be 'advanced' but do not
be put off by it; might I suggest you sit back and just lurk for a bit...
You'll catch on/catch up in short order.

The 2 references you make are certainly from the fringes: HTML 2 goes
'wayyyyy' back (the point that Jukka was making is that the concept has been
well established), and microformats are something kind of on the leading
edge (depends on perspective of course) that are peripheral to online
accessibility (although as I'm sure you've picked up *might* have some
accessibility issues, although I for one do not see them as severely as
Jukka does). And for what it's worth, Jukka and I have corresponded on many
occasion, both publicly and privately, and while at this time we are on
opposite sides of the discussion, I have great respect for him and the
contributions he has made to this field - he is one of the "old soldiers"
(sorry Jukka) of this field, and his postings are always worth reading.

You will find that by-and-large the discussions on this list are focused,
reasoned, respectful and helpful - you just happened to enter into a
somewhat technically higher-than average discussion. However, if you have
questions, feel free to ask - there is always somebody willing to help and
offer suggestions.

Good luck.

JF
---
John Foliot
Academic Technology Consultant
Stanford Online Accessibility Program
http://soap.stanford.edu
Stanford University
560 Escondido Mall
Meyer Library 181
Stanford, CA 94305-3093
Tel: 650-862-4603





From: smithj7
Date: Tue, Feb 20 2007 4:20PM
Subject: Re: Hi everyone
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Don't worry. I am always learning new things. I've been on the list for a
while and learned about microformats only from this thread. The inital
thread had a presentation link that also has links from the presentation
that provides a nice over to microformats.

It is best to start a page with accessiblity in mind. I usually get called
in to "help" or "evaluate" after the site/application is at the end of its
journey. Then the developers what to "make it work" with... this or that
technology. So this list can be of great help to get it right the first
time!



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Rutherford" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 4:57 PM
Subject: [WebAIM] Hi everyone


> My name is Tim and I am a beginning web designer that wants to start off
> by being accessibility
> focused. I think that you guys may be way over my head because until I
> joined this list, I had never
> heard of microformats and stuff. Also somone mentioned things that was
> included in the HTML 2.0
> specification and I started with HTML 4.01.
> Is this the right forum to get started or could you all suggest another
> mailing list that I can join
> ?
>
> Ciao,
> TR
>
>
>

From: Carol E. Wheeler
Date: Wed, Feb 21 2007 8:20AM
Subject: Re: Hi everyone
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I am mostly lurking to learn myself. This is a great resource even if it is a new area for you. There's is occasionally some heat--but rarely without light.

Carol Wheeler
Washington Office
American Library Assoc

From: Penny Roberts
Date: Wed, Feb 21 2007 10:00AM
Subject: Re: Hi everyone
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Carol E. Wheeler wrote:
>There's is occasionally some heat--but rarely without light.

What a great way to describe it! That's why I asked for the two sides
of a recent discussion to get into "holy war territory": because the
arguments on *both* sides are enlightening to the rest of us.
In the past there have been some nasty exchanges (and I've certainly
felt like leaving as a result) but the main culprit left when Jared made
it plain that such behaviour was not acceptable.

Penny