Sorcerer's Tower :: Accessibility

Beyond Tables, Beyond Divs - Simple JavaScript Calculator III

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:32:03 GMT

As we (hopefully) all know, using HTML tables for layout is Bad and Wrong.

Unfortunately, the most common way people avoid using tables is to just replace their table, tr and td tags with divs, divs and more divs.

The div tag is a generic container that should be used as a last resort, if there are no other more suitable options.

Whilst the problem of excess divs is not limited to the conversion of table layouts, it is perhaps most obvious here, as it shows the developer is still stuck in the column+row frame of mind, rather than thinking about what they are actually displaying.

In this blog entry, I show an example of how avoiding this mindset can result in much simpler and cleaner code.

Make it usable, make it usable, make it usable, then add water

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:33:45 GMT

That being my answer to the question, "How does one build a website effectively?"

So, let's examine what I mean by it...

PFCT - Peter's Form Custom Tags

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:11:28 GMT

Over the past few months I have been working on creating a custom tag library for easily creating accessible and usable forms.

I have of course been planning to launch it as an open-source project, and today I finally got around to comitting my code to RIAForge.

It is still a development version, so you might not want to jump in and use it on important sites straight away, but if you're interested in creating accessible forms in CFML please do take a look at what I've done and give me your thoughts over on the project's forums at RIAForge.

Why Be Accessible?

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:05:34 GMT

There are three very simple reasons to write accessible code:

It is the right thing to do;
It means you're not breaking the law;
It increases your search engine rankings;

Accessibility Is Not CSS!

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:05:00 GMT

The biggest barrier to creating an accessible Internet is not browser support or badly designed syntax, but rather people's false beliefs of what accessibility is; what it means to 'be accessible'. For many people, being accessible means switching from font tags to CSS, using em tags for italics, and replacing tables with divs. THAT IS NOT ACCESSIBILITY!