Web Standards, Accessibility & More » html5

Big Month on Web Axe (Nov 2010)

Dennis — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 01:01:03 +0000

I sure had a busy November 2010 with Web Axe, my podcast and blog on web accessibility and web standards. Here a summary of the posts:

Podcast #86: EDUCAUSE Review, AHG Preview, HTML5 Audio with Terrill Thompson (Nov 2)
Dennis speaks with Terrill Thompson about a variety of topics including a summary of the EDUCAUSE conference; a preview of the Accessing Higher Ground (AHG) conference; community efforts to fix the web; HTML5 audio, video, and controls; and captioning.

AccessU West Keynote by Web Axe Host (Nov 5)
About a conference in January in San Jose, California, for which I present my first keynote address!

Feedback on A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility (Nov 6)
Some corrections and clarification on a popular article.

HTML5 Sanity Check (Nov 21)
A warning about the readiness of HTML5 pertaining to web accessibility, and some great articles and resources too!

Response to Twitter Keyboard Shortcuts (Nov 23)
Comments on the irony of keyboard shortcuts on Twitter.com when the site isn’t keyboard accessible.

November Link Roundup (Nov 30)
Every month this year I’ve been publishing a list of links going around Twitter which pertain to web accessibility.

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6 HTML5 Books

Dennis — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:38:15 +0000

Here’s a list of 6 excellent HTML5 books.Â I have HTML5 for Web Designers which is a great, succinct book. Jeremy Keith rocks. I have the electronic version of Introducing HTML5 which is also excellent; it’s longer and has more about the new APIs. More from those authors over at HTML5 Doctor.

Introducing HTML5 (Peachpit) by Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp
HTML5 for Web Designers (A Book Apart) by Jeremy Keith
HTML5: Up and Running (O’Reilly)Â by Mark Pilgrim
Pro HTML5 Programming: Powerful APIs for Richer Internet Application Development (APress)
HTML5: Designing Rich Internet Applications by Matthew David (Visualizing the Web)
Beginning HTML5 and CSS3: Next Generation Web Standards (APress) by Christopher Murphy

Bonus! Video tutorial:Â HTML5 Now: A Step-by-Step Video Tutorial for Getting Started Today (Voices That Matter) byÂ Tantek Ã‡elik

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HTML5 podcast, Lists, and Mayor

Dennis — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:20:07 +0000

What’s up with me?

I recently published a great new podcast on Web Axe,Â HTML5 and John Foliot (a transcript is also provided). I interview John Foliot, a professional peer whom I also consider a friend. John shares he extensive knowledge in HTML5, the W3C, and web accessibility. He works at Stanford University and is an active member of the W3C.

Lists functionality is completed on AccessibleTwitter.com, finally. It’s been in progress for like half a year! Just need to add some Ajax to enhance the experience now. But for the next month, I’ll be busy working on converting the Basic Authentication to Open Auth. Fun.Â By the way, Accessible Twitter experienced some site outages a few weeks ago, but it seems to be resolved. Remember that unsetting your PHP variables is always a good idea! Ugh.

So I’ve become a pretty regular FourSquare user. I’m proud to be the “mayor” of the Starbucks close to my day job, in Redwood Shores, California. No biggie, although I do get $1 off a frappaccino at any time. Although I’m not big on frappaccinos; too bad it’s not a discount on espressos con panna!

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Other “Thoughts on Flash” from Apple’s Steve Jobs

Dennis — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:39:14 +0000

Steve Jobs recently published an open letter about Apple’s position on Flash which addressed the reasons behind not implementing Flash on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. It’s very well written and has some great points, but contains many flaws as well. Apple is a great design company, and I understand they are indeed a company and must look out for their own interest; but that doesn’t excuse the act of misinforming and misleading people.

One of the first responses to the letter was byÂ Remy Sharp (@rem) who pointed out that:

HTML5 apps won’tÂ just work with touch devices, the code to handle touch events must still be written.
The H.264 video format is currently supported only by Safari and Chrome, but H.264 is notÂ supported by the two biggest browsers, IE and Firefox.

Remy’s tweet also points us to this video of a presentation from Jonathan Stark, App Store is For Suckers. Stark points out some not-so-good points about the Apple Store including the fact that they subjectively turn down many apps which applied to be in the store. For example, there are many games which including war and killing of animals, but a seal-clubbing app from PETA was rejected. (In response,Â PETA Sends Steve Jobs Vegan Chocolate Seals!)

Web accessibility veteran and friendÂ John Foliot of Stanford University tweeted these six “fallacies” from the letter:

The H.264 video format is closed & patent encumbered â€”Â not open.
WebKit is not the most widely deployed mobile browser; that belongs to Opera.
HTML5 is not finished & W3C anticipates a few more years before Ready For Prime Time.
WHAT WG (the incomplete HTML5) is not open either, it’s by invitation only: whatwg.org/charter
Two of the four major browsers do not support H.264. [see above]
If Apple is so open, why do they control IApp distribution with an iron fist? They don’t like your app? You’re toast. [see above]

What do you think?

Disappointed in Google WAVE

Dennis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:56 +0000

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

And the generated source:

Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using Google WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

If you’re on WAVE, please send me a message; that may help me feel better! (smiley) My address is dlembree [AT] googlewave [DOT] NOSPAM com

Addendum

How ironic. I just noticed that I received some WAVE invites, so if you don’t have an account and still want one after reading this (smiley), please feel free to leave a comment.

I overheard something that made me think of this funny line:

Today’s Google WAVE invites are becoming yesterday’s AOL invite CD ROM disks.

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My First HTML 5 page

Dennis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:32:09 +0000

Yesterday I posted my first “live” HTML5 page, hoorah! It’s DennisLembree.com, my personal home page. It look virtually identical in all newer browsers (with rounded corners the exception). And the code validates, of course. I even made a couple enhancement to the code thanks for Twitter buddy @icaaq. It only took about one full hour’s work; not too bad, mostly because it was XHTML Strict previously.

Also, I’ve been working on an article about HTML5 and CSS3 which should be done soon.

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HTML 5 Resources

Dennis — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:37:24 +0000

html5 logo

I’ve been doing some research lately on HTML5 (and CSS3). Have a good article cookin’. But first, just thought I’d share some excellent resources/links. That is, if you’re a webbie techie computer nerd like me!

Cool Core Stuff

Coding A HTML 5 Layout From Scratch
Bruce Lawson from Opera: The HTML 5 Experiments
A Whole Lotta HTML5 Love
Free HTML 5 WordPress Theme
HTML5 Validator (experimental)
Cool example HTML5 web site: StandardsNext
Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong!
Font in Your Face

HTML 5 Doctor

HTML 5 Articles in Spanish

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