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.

Posted on October 5, 2009 in Quick Tips, Accessibility, (X)HTML

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.

Posted on October 6, 2009 in Accessibility, Mobile Web, Apple

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.

Posted on October 12, 2009 in Accessibility, Usability

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.

Posted on October 13, 2009 in Accessibility, Usability, CSS

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).

Posted on October 19, 2009 in Web Standards

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.

Posted on October 20, 2009 in Accessibility, Usability, JavaScript

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.

Posted on October 26, 2009 in Accessibility

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.

Posted on October 28, 2009 in Quick Tips, Accessibility, (X)HTML