Archived posts, October 2009
Use the optgroup element to group select options
When grouping the options of a select element, you can use the optgroup element with a label attribute instead of faking the groups with option elements.
Gesture-based VoiceOver on the iPhone and iPod touch
Apple has made the iPhone and iPod touch accessible to visually impaired people by shipping them with the new, gesture-based version of the VoiceOver screen reader.
Improve your keyboard accessibility
Many web designers and developers forget about or ignore keyboard-only users when building web sites. Here is some advice on what to avoid and what to do.
Remove the outline from links on :active only
Completely removing the outline from links makes it very difficult for people who do not use a mouse to see where the keyboard focus is. But there is a better way.
New W3C website launched
The new W3C website was launched on October 13, 2009. It sports a new design, new content, new information architecture, and a bit of invalid CSS (which has caused some debate).
Lightboxes and keyboard accessibility
All Lightbox clones that I have tested have issues with keyboard accessibility, making it unnecessarily difficult or confusing to use them without a mouse.
Design patterns and examples for colour blindness
We are Colorblind contains good and bad examples of designing for people who are colourblind along with design patterns, tips and tricks, and colour checking tools.
Use the th element to specify row and column headers in data tables
When creating data tables in HTML, make sure to mark up the table structure properly, using the relevant elements and attributes available in HTML.
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