Articles tagged as “Accessibility”

Here is a list of all articles tagged as “Accessibility”. If you enjoy the high-quality content that I provide here at Perishable Press, you may want to subscribe to our main content feed to stay current.

The 5-Minute CSS Mobile Makeover

More people are surfing the Web via mobile device than ever before. It’s just so convenient to have that mobile access to anything you need. Sadly, most websites have not yet considered their mobile visitors, who probably move on to the next site before trying to make sense of a jumbled mess. Those of you who surf the Mobile Web know exactly what I’m talking about here: sites that “get it” are a joy to visit, but those that don’t are a total pain. What’s to get? Well, for one, if you do nothing else for your mobile visitors, take five minutes and implement a basic stylesheet to make your site ...

The Voice of the World Wide Web (Consortium)

Check out this sweet composition of aural styles discovered in the stylesheet for the W3C’s website: /* AURAL STYLES (via W3C) */ @media aural { h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { voice-family: paul, male; stress: 20; richness: 90 } h1 { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 90 } h2 { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 80 } h3 { pitch: low; pitch-range: 70 } ...

WordPress Hack: Multiple Email Recipients for Contact Coldform

In the current version of my custom contact-form WordPress plugin, Contact Coldform, there is no built-in method of sending emails to multiple addresses. The thought of adding such functionality had not occurred to me until recently, when a Coldform user asked about enabling it. After a bit of investigation, it turns out that integrating multiple-recipient functionality into Contact Coldform is as easy as it is practical. I will definitely be adding this feature to the next release of the Coldform, however, here is the modification procedure for those who just can’t wait. Step 1: Open contact_coldform.php and locate the following code: $recipient = get_option('coldform_email'); $recipname = get_option('coldform_name'); $recipsite = ...

CSS/(X)HTML Tutorial: Hovering Accessibility Jump Menu

Recently, a reader named Don asked about this theme’s accessibility (accesskey) jump menu located at the top of each page. Several people have commented that they like the way the jump menu “lights up” upon gaining focus. Whenever a user hovers their cursor over the region at the top of the page, all links in the ...

WordPress Plugin: Contact Coldform

Welcome to the homepage for Contact Coldform, a free contact-form plugin for WordPress. Contact Coldform is designed with a sharp focus on clean code, solid performance, and ease of use. No frills, no gimmicks, only pure contact-form satisfaction. If you are looking for a solid, well-designed, user-friendly, fully customizable contact form, look no further: Coldform is perfect for any WordPress blogger. The comprehensive Options panel makes Coldform easy for beginners to take full control, while the consistent, logical PHP/(X)HTML code makes Coldform ideal for advanced users desiring customized functionality. ...

The Ultimate JavaScript Library for Embedding Flash Content

Earlier this year, Geoff Stearns and Bobby van der Sluis teamed up to create the “ultimate JavaScript library for embedding Flash content” into web documents. For those of you familiar with techniques for embedding Flash, these two names are instantly recognizable. Geoff Stearns is the author of SWFObject and Bobby van der Sluis is the author of UFO. Easily, SWFObject and UFO are the two best and most widely used techniques for detecting and embedding Flash content. Needless to say, when I heard that these two great minds ...

Embed Flash or Die Trying

Embed Flash or Die Tryin’ Web designers and developers looking to embed Flash content into a web page currently enjoy a wide variety of methods from which to choose. The most common methods vary along several key dimensions, including standards-compliance, user-friendliness, and universal support. Some methods make it easy to provide alternative content, others enable auto-activation of Flash content, while others feature plugin-detection functionality. In an attempt to round-up the myriad techniques, this article presents nine of the most useful, practical, and popular methods for embedding Flash content. Nine Ways to Embed Flash Content embed Element...

Flash-Detection Triple-Threat

In our previous article, Alternate JavaScript Slideshow for SlideshowPro, we present an elaborate method for providing alternate content specifically for SlideshowPro. Although the method points toward a more generalized adaptation, its overall functional implementation remains focused on the presentation of slideshows. This article explores the generalization of the previously defined method for providing alternate JavaScript content when Flash support is not detected. Using skyzyx.com’s excellent Flash-detection script, Flash Detect 3, we will outline a general approach for supporting the following browser configurations: Browser supports the required version of Flash Excellent. This is the ideal situation. Your Flash-based content will be displayed as intended. Browser ...

Alternate JavaScript Slideshow for SlideshowPro

For the unenlightened, SlideshowPro (SP) is a Flash-based slideshow-authoring system that delivers full-featured, high-end, Flash-based slideshows. Websites featuring SP slideshows present content in sophisticated fashion, inspiring users with elegant captions, beautiful transitions, and intuitive navigation. However, many visitors are unable to experience SP slideshows because they lack the requisite Flash support. SlideshowPro-based slideshows currently require Flash 7 or better to function. And, although Flash 7 is quite common, it is far from ubiquitous. In the "worst-case" scenario, Flash-challenged visitors will see a broken webpage or missing content. Unfortunately, the typical "best-case" scenario is not much better, as non-Flash users typically will see a single, static image, which is generally ...

Automatic Language Translation Methods

As you may have noticed, Perishable Press recently added automatic language translation to each of our articles. The free, automatic translations are available as a series of image links (via corresponding country flag icons) next to each article’s individual post view. We have found that providing this free service is important as many of our visitors come from countries other than the United States, and therefore may be unable to read our articles as presented in the English language. Although there are several excellent translation services currently available, our research has determined that Google’s free translation service exceeds our expectations and serves as an excellent online translator ...

W3C Validation Services

Here are the validation services currently provided by the W3C 1: W3C Semantic Data Extractor W3C Link Checker W3C Site Valet Tools W3C WebLight - Illumit W3C Markup Validation Service W3C CSS Validation Service W3C RDF Validation Service W3C Atom and RSS Feed Validation Service W3C P3P Validator W3C XML Schema Checking Service W3C ...

Accessibility Notes Plus

Just a few useful accessibility notes.. Add accesskey attributes to important list items, content areas, and any other key areas of the document. Use alphanumeric characters as accesskey values, as in this example: hhome mmenu ssearch When an accesskey attribute is present within a link tag, pressing alt+letter on the keyboard is equivalent to double-clicking that link. Generally speaking, the presence of an accesskey attribute within an element brings focus to that element. Thus, radio and check boxes are toggled, links are clicked, and form elements are navigated as the alt+letter combination is pressed. It is also ...