Web Standards, Accessibility & More

I had high expectations when I went to see the new movie Beowulf last weekend, and man, I was not disappointed. It was awesome! I saw it in IMAX 3D which made it even more incredible. Although there were a couple major changes to the original plot of the epic Beowulf poem, I think it was for the better.

Factoids:

• Beowulf is an old English epic poem thought to have been composed sometime in the middle ages. The poem tells the story of Beowulf and his battles against three different adversaries.
• The only surviving manuscript of Beowulf is the work of two, rather than one, scribes who transcribed the poem from another earlier manuscript and it now resides in the British Library.
• The truly epic poem Beowulf has survived through the centuries and is the only surviving example of Anglo Saxon heroic poetry.
• Despite being a mainly Scandinavian story with most of the storyline taking part in Scandinavia rather than England it has risen to become a national English epic.
• The poem consists of no less than 3,183 lines and the events described in the poem take place during the 5th or 6th Century.

Funny how Christmas, I mean the holiday season, has changed over the years…and I’m not that old…

Politically Correct

It’s strange how less and less people say “Merry Christmas” nowadays. I agree that the politically correct (PC) term “Happy Holidays” is more appropriate. It’s just odd to hear people say alternative phrases to each other. The other day I picked up the greeting “Merry Holiday” which I thought was amusing, yet quite appropriate. I wonder what they say in the UK, since holiday means vacation; then again, I don’t think they have the PC issue there.

Shopping and Gifts

Is it me or does the shopping season getting crazier every year? I must agree that Americans give far too much stress on the gift-giving custom and not enough of family, friends, and plain old rest. Finding the right gift is a pain and people are so picky with what they want. Maybe this is why gift cards are so popular now.

I also like the following idea to help solve this problem: each adult member in large family buys for only one other adult. We do this on my wife’s side of the family and it works real well. We pick from a hat to decide who buys for whom. But the kids get presents from everyone of course.

Personally

Personally, the holidays have sure changed from being a kid, to young adulthood, to father. It used to be waking up early, opening lots of toys, then playing with them the rest of the day. Then in my 20s, it was about coming home from out of town and visiting family and friends and doing my own thing. Now it’s about family, my wife and kids, my brother and his family, my parents, in-laws, etc. Pretty crazy.

Ross Johnson and I recently interviewed Patrick H. Lauke, the webmaster at University of Salford (UK). He is a vital member of Accessify.com and a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force (ATF). He is also a co-author of the book Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance.

The interview was scheduled for 11am, but with the change of daylight savings time and time zones, there was a slight mix-up. So we ended up starting early, at about 10:30am, which was fortunate since we ended up speaking longer than planned. Every minute was valuable as Patrick is very knowledgeable in the web standards and accessibility world, and has a very pleasant demeanor. (It seems most of these guys live and work in the UK!)

The Patrick H. Lauke Interview on Web Axe

Ross Johnson and I interviewed Christian Heilmann this morning for the Web Axe podcast (will be posted soon). Chris is a leading expert on DOM scripting and has published many articles and just published a book. The interview begain at 8am sharp, 1pm his time in the UK. We had a bit of a scheduling problem because of the 5-hour time difference and the fact that his laptop got stolen. We used Skype, which worked great, except Ross was cut off just after the interview was over, thankfully because Ross was the one recording it. It was a pleasure speaking to Chris, who’s a very valuable part of the web community, and a nice guy as well.

Note: the Chris Heilmann interview podcast is now live.