2009-01-20T23:46:52Z PunBB http://www.killersites.com/forums/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2009-01-20T23:46:52Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/461/adobe-media-player-adobe-tv/new/posts/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/7/ 2009-01-13T17:06:12Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/14/i-think-we-should-make-both-of-these-well-known/new/posts/

in the main file and save it with .php filename extension instead of .html or .htm. Do the same with other main pages where the menu repeats. You can use .txt, .php, .html or .htm for the "include" file but it distinguishes it as an "include" file in your file list if you use .inc as the filename extension and it's even better if you put all "include" files in a different directory/folder. If you use a complete page as an "include" file with .html or .htm for the filename extension the final processed page will have two doctypes, two html tags, two head sections, etc. in an unusual place which is not a good idea. You can have different "include" files on the same main pages for header and footer and even use "includes" for the parts of the head section that repeat. The PHP code needs to be processed by a server before the result can be seen, either by the hosting service's server just before downloading or by a server like WAMP (which includes Apache) on your computer for local viewing. SHTML works the same way but the "include" file must have .txt filename extension and the main pages have the code and the .shtml filename extension. Check that your hosting service supports PHP or SHTML as free webspaces provided by ISPs usually do not. Stefan has 2 great video tutorials explaining exactly this in the [url=http://w ww.idea22.com/]PHP tutorials[/url]: [url=http://idea22.com/video/details/id/200708088306345299]PHP includes part 1[/url] and [url=http://idea22.com/video/details/id/200708287129879572]PHP includes part 2[/url]. Not sure if this is in the videos - but it's generally a good idea, especially if the site is set up with sub-folders, to use the absolute paths pointing to the include files, and for anything the include itself points to - that can save a lot of wondering why something suddenly isn't showing up.]]>

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/12/ 2009-01-13T16:57:29Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/357/repeating-sections-of-code-on-many-pages/new/posts/

and that have a syntax meaning a screenreader understands and passes along. This was a argument that was accepted, then simply dropped as unimportant as we do not have many blind users and no reason to make the site only for the blind and not the visual users. Well that was not my point, my point was simply that by using and you make the important text look important to visual users and sound important to those listening to the site. Besides those with say poor eyesight, or cognitive or reading weaknesses can find it very hard to read multiple lines of underlined text. the answer of course was that we do not have many disabled users...... so, I pointed out we do not know how many and I was hired to make the site accessible to all users! But the argument went on with the fact that the employees are used to underlining text in their paper based work and e-mails etc., we cannot simply forbid them to not use a tool they are used to. XStandard does not support underlining text, or colour changes, or text size changes. All that is meant to be done in the CSS, all XStandard does is allow for syntax, making text headers or quotes etc.. It does not allow users to choose formatting as that is done by the designer, that is what he is payed for. The employee simply needs to supply the content and make it logical using syntax. Now I am told we cannot expect the employees to change the way they do things. Well why not? I built the web site to be used by "The Customer", a design that causes no problems for "The Customer". Now it is to be changed to suite the needs of a few employees who will rarely do anything with it anyways. The very person who hired me to make the site accessible is now having me make it so any employee can change any of the text in any way they like. They can justify text or maybe align it center (causing problems for dyslexics and other cognitive problems for instance) or align it right because they like it when every other of the 170 + pages is set left normally. They will be able to set text sizes at will in the HTML overriding my CSS and disallowing the disabled from changing the content to meet their needs by replacing the stylesheet. I will continue to argue this until the job is done in hopes I can change their minds but see little hope. Those I am dealing with see the usefulness of the site for the employees to be more important than the usefulness of the site to "The Customer". Should we expect our customer actually have to learn the rules that pertain to web sites? Should they have to change their habits to work in this medium? Is that to much to ask? No, I think not because the web site reflects the owner, how well the web site can be used by the user reflects on how much the owner cares about the user. If a web site is hard to use but looks pretty, that tells me that the owner cares little about the user and is on a ego trip. If you are a designer/developer, remember you have to make your customer happy, but you are the expert and in the end it is your job to make "The Customer" happy so they keep using your customers web site. If you read this as a web site owner, remember you are offering a service or info or product to your customer and have to meet their needs, so if you really care about the user, then you should learn to use the tools you have to serve them better, not just make your life easier and to keep your habits. We developers Build our web sites for the "The Customer", the end user. If we do not make them happy or they cannot use a site due to barriers, then we have failed.]]>

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2009-01-08T16:52:52Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/72/who-do-you-have-to-design-for/new/posts/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2008-12-22T17:48:03Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/76/where-can-i-learn-web-design/new/posts/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2008-12-22T17:47:35Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/77/safari-books-online/new/posts/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2008-12-22T17:47:05Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/78/opera-web-standards-curriculum/new/posts/

tags, it was in fact a mere 2 hour class in that time. I was taught that HTML was dead and XHTML had replaced it and that XHTML is simply HTML that works with XML. We also no how wrong that is. This lead for me to what I consider "Stagnation." That is what is what I did, I stagnated. I kept the level of knowledge that I had and went no further, I merely did the same things wrong as I was taught for 3 years because it was taught that way and the school must know what they were doing. About 2003 I landed the job of creating a web portal for my District's Youth Services (I was living in Berlin Germany at the time) and this needed to be accessible (I thought I knew what that meant back then) according to the German BITV laws. Well this was a big deal and trying to figure out how to do it with tables I came across two articles and a old Bookmarks file. The articles were from Gez Lemon (Juicey Studios) & Patrick "Redux" Lauke and both pointed to a web site named Accessif.com and it's Forum. The Bookmarks were mine and I discovered a site called Killersites that I had been to a few times based on the book of a big name designer. [b]Killersites[/b] Well Killersites had changed, a new fellow was running in named Stefan and it now had a forum. So I joined it and quickly was linked further to a web site named [url=http://www.csszengarden.com]CSSZenGarden[/url] - my Jaw hit the floor! CSS can do that? I still do not know if my school was so bad or at that time CSS support was just so poor, but it opened a new world to me and I jumped in feet first. Stef and David Mead were a great help in those early days. David has since dropped off Killersites due to spending time with his fairly new child but stops by once in a while. Accessibility did not exist on KS, but as I became more proficient I brought it up more and more and Stef supported me and was open minded to changing his ideas of web design and I finally became a moderator here ...ok, the fact I was in Germany and online when he was offline likely helped to *grin*. not only did I learn allothere about web design but having to then find ways to describe these new ideas to other regulars and new members helped me focus and consider options for arguments and teaching web design and accessibility here taught me as much as anything. Now I find members such as Im, Tpatterson, Thelma, Billy and many more who came here with either no experience or limited experience with accessibility and such now answering the same questions they used to ask and many more pointing out accessibility issues and the likes. I see my answerers online before I even have a chance. This is not because I am a super designer or teacher, it is because these people were open to new ideas and counter points to what the believed when they came here. They have reached the point they are now at, being respected by newbies they help because they were willing to listen to some unknown guy named LSW with just as much or maybe less years in the business as they themselves had. But in the end, they are now where they are because they got involved in a forum where they had contact with Stef, David, myself and each other.Because they had a place they enjoyed where new ideas and old myths were discussed among experts and beginners and all as equals. It is Forums that brought us where we are today. [b]Accessify[/b] I walked into [url=http://www.accessifyforum.com/]Accessify Forum[/url] thinking I knew what I was talking about ... whoa was I wrong. I did not know beans about accessibility in the real world. That was quickly pointed out to me and once I toned down my postings and began asking more, those in the group accepted me and I have learned from some of the best in the business including but not limited to Joe Clark , Patrick "Redux" Lauke, Isofarrow, Malarkey, Tommy "Toolman" Olsson, Brother Cake, Gez Lemon, Diva, Nigel Peck, Molly Holzschlag, ... also contact with people who work with and/or represent the W3C, RNIB and many others like Universities. The vast majority being from Europe and giving me another way of looking at the web. I even today read more than I answer as people there are far above me in the learning curve. This time I started and remained a beginner in may ways and as a user and not admin or moderator can say that it is also invaluable as a resource, Many of the best links I share at Killersites come from threads at Accessify. Although it like every other forum is about learning, it tends to be more discussion oriented with points and counter points as accessibility is not a s clear cut as HTML and CSS. It is harder to answer with yes and no answers as at KS. So their is more discussion about peoples views and understandings of guidelines and real life real time discussions about what works and what does not. The best blogs out there post here quite often before going live to get feedback from other big names. Accessify Forum put me in contact with the [url=http://www.gawds.org]Guild of Accessible Web Designers[/url] (GAWDS) who's membership I joined and discovered (members web sites are first examined to ensure that they truly understand or support accessibility) that my "Accessible web site" had more barriers then you could shake a stick at and that I did not know the first thing about accessibility. But Mel Pedley of [url=http://www.blackwidows.co.uk/ ]Blackwidow Designs[/url] not only pointed out my failings but how to fix them and with her help the LSW of that time became accessible and I was accepted as a member. I still find myself slapping my forehead over there when I discover some accessibility consideration so logical I should have seen it myself ...so I am still learning today. As above, the acceptance of the regulars and in this case industry leaders and their patience mean that once again a Forum opened up new worlds for me and "brainstorming with the best" has boosted my knowledge in these last 3 years far beyond the first year and I have learned more then I ever did in school. [b]Other forums[/b] There are other forums out there, each with a specialty, [url=http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/]SitePoint[/url] is a great general forum with more knowledge in the direction of programming and business oriented things. [url=http://forum.computerarts.co.uk/]Computer Arts Forum[/url] gets more into the artistic and software oriented with allot of 3D, Flash and artistic subjects. I just dropped out of actively going to these forums as they are very big and somewhat hard to deal with as well as the move, real life and more duties at killersites. It does not reflect on their usefulness, simply on lack of time to spend there. It does not matter what forum you join, the point is that forums are a must for web designers just to keep your creativity charged and keep you up to date on recent changes in the industry. Whether you are a beginner or advanced, learning or teaching does not matter, it is the participation that matters that keeps you at your best for your customers and helper or "helpee" you will find your self learning and improving either way. [b]Projects[/b] Although not directly related to forums, face it, you can read tutorials, blogs, books or forums and it does no good if you cannot turn around and put it in use now or later. Bookmarks are a must! Bookmark everything! And do so logically and under different labels so you can find it again when you need it! So projects are a must, private or customer, actual or make believe ... you need projects to support you in the forums. Like I say above, my knowledge has multiplied beyond belief since joining KS and accessify. Here I made the jump in a short amount of time between beginner and now the expert here for accessibility. All because I had projects that challenged me and required things I have never done before. But since my contract with the portal ended I have had no real challenges and although I spend allot oftime at KS some may have noticed that I am not so vocal, I help less then before, I basically chase Spam. It has become somewhat boring as the challenge is gone, I learn little new and we have a flock of regulars now faster with the same answers then me. I find myself once more in a slump, once more stagnating. I am now finishing up on a re-code of my Host's site, it was harder than expected but the only real challenge was working with Data Tables. But again i turned to the forums to get help, advice and see what I have missed never having done serious data tables before and for a short time it was fun again. So i will likely write another post on the correct creation of accessible data tables. So that is my rant, maybe self centered but I enjoy seeing Thelma and Susie now helping others as David and Stef likely feel about me having seen me improve here. It is easy to get caught up in the web and forget your real life, I see that every time my daughter wants to play and I say no. But just burying yourself in projects or real life can be the death of a designer as well. If it is even just one, choose a forum you like and hit it regularly, at least once a week for a few hours just to help and see what is changing as it is changing to keep from stagnating. If you have no time for forums then try at least a news mail list or a few important blogs, preferably allowing comments. Stagnation is death in this field.]]>

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2008-12-22T17:46:42Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/89/the-importance-of-forums/new/posts/

http://www.killersites.com/forums/user/17/ 2008-12-22T17:46:19Z http://www.killersites.com/forums/topic/91/fx-not-ff/new/posts/