With the advent of more compliant web browsers, the quest for standards shifts to the tools pros use to build sites. Christopher Schmitt spoke with Adobe and Macromedia for the low-down on web standards, accessibility, and authoring tools.
Topic: Accessibility
A Backward Compatible Style Switcher
You asked for it, you’ve got it: an Open Source alternate style sheet switcher that actually works in Netscape 4. No, really. Daniel Ludwin shows how it’s done.
Why Don’t You Code for Netscape?
Long considered the Holy Grail of web design, “backward compatibility” has its place; but at this point in web development history, shouldn’t we be more concerned about forward compatibility? ALA makes the case for authoring to web standards instead of browser quirks.
All the Access Money Can Buy
Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly access, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.
CSS Talking Points: Selling Clients on Web Standards
Selling your clients on standards-compliant design doesn’t have to hurt. Kise’s four-point CSS Selling Plan helps the medicine go down.
SMIL When You Play That
A gentle introduction to the SVG and SMIL standards for programmable vector graphics and accessible rich media.
To Hell With Bad Browsers
In a year or two, all sites will be designed with standards that separate structure from presentation (or they will be built with Flash 7). We can watch our skills grow obsolete, or start learning standards-based techniques. In fact, since the latest versions of IE, Navigator, and Opera already support many web standards, if we are willing to let go of the notion that backward compatibility is a virtue, we can stop making excuses and start using these standards now. At ALA, beginning with Issue No. 99, we’ve done just that. Join us.
From Table Hacks to CSS Layout: A Web Designer’s Journey
Redesigning Web Dev Notes using CSS should have been easy. It wasn’t. The first problem was understanding how CSS actually works. The second was getting it to work in standards-compliant browsers. A journey of discovery.
This HTML Kills: Thoughts on Web Accessibility
Activist Jim Byrne sounds off on the importance of web accessibility, and the difficulty of doing it right.
Accessibility: the Politics of Design
Herrell deconstructs the new U.S. accessibility regulations and their implications for web designers everywhere.
