Newsletter Archives - November 2005

Featured Article

An Introduction to NCDAE's Tips and Tools: Macromedia Breeze
by Jon Whiting of WebAIM

Jonathan Whiting introduces the first of a series of fact sheets created by the National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE), a partner with WebAIM. This first fact sheet discusses the accessibility issues of Macromedia Breeze. Future fact sheets will address the accessibility features and challenges of technologies used in distance education.

Read the full article: An Introduction to NCDAE's Tips and Tools: Macromedia Breeze

On Target News

NCDAE Webcast: Student Information Systems and Individuals with Disabilities

The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) will host another in their series of webcasts with a focus for those in education. A discussion will be held on the accessibility of student information systems used for registration, grading, student services, and financial aid. Join them Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 for the live audio Webcast. The broadcast is free and will begin at 1PM Mountain Daylight Savings Time (12:00PM Pacific; 2:00PM Central; 3:00PM Eastern).

On Target Tips

How To: Anchor Text (Don't Click Here!)
from Matt Bailey's Accessibility Outlook Raising the awareness of Web Site Accessibility and Marketing

Anchor text such as "click here", "more info", and "skip intro" are problematic not only for accessibility, but for usability and search engines. Matt Bailey reminds us of the power of descriptive anchor text.

Form Help without Popups
by Gez Lemon, www.juicystudio.com

Thrusting new windows upon visitors of your site is frowned upon, as it goes against device independence by assuming a windowed environment. One situation where developers feel that a new window is appropriate is with web forms. If the visitor requires help on a form field, a new window saves the visitor the trouble of having to leave the form, and possibly losing the data they have entered. This article illustrates a scripting technique to get around the problem without having to open a new window.

On Target Resources

Sim Daltonism
by Michel Fortin

Michel Fortin recently released Sim Daltonism. Sim Daltonism is a color blindness simulator for Mac OS X. It filters in real-time the area around the mouse pointer and displays the result – as seen by a color blind person – in a floating palette. Since there are many types of color blindness, Sim Daltonism allow you to choose the one you want to see.

Character References Explained
by Lachlan Hunt

It seems that many people aren?t as well informed about character references as they should be, so I?m going to clearly explain everything you need to know (and some things you probably don?t) about them, primarily for HTML and XML. There are two types of character references: numeric character references and character entity references.