The Australian Government recently released a study into the Accessibility of the Portable Document Format (PDF) for people with a disability, which Duff Johnson analysed very effectively.

I can agree with almost all of Duff’s points, and it’s covered so well I didn’t feel I needed to check the source …

I attended the Roundtable Discussion about Bristol City Council’s Future Web Platform, an interesting insight into how local authorities think about their web presence. Something about the presentations & process jarred with me, and it took a little while to work out what the problem was: the assumptions. I’ve dissected some of them and proposed new ones.

I’ve noticed a trend in how I use the internet now, where I use different aspects of it in different contexts. In my browser there is a set of bookmarks in a folder called “Send to”, which allows me to direct resources to different places.

I noticed something in the browser stats before I noticed it on my laptop – Google’s Chrome doesn’t ask you about updates. I knew, almost subconsciously, that there was a Google updater programme running. However, I didn’t realise the impact it could have on web development, and potentially users as well.

I’ve recently been struck by a parallel: the differences between usability and accessibility are very similar to the differences between writing the HTML5 spec and covering accessibility requirements. Perhaps that can help explain the friction, and why WAI-ARIA is needed.

I came across a situation recently where a JavaScript widget didn’t ‘work’ on the iPhone. It did technically work, but without knowing about two-fingered scrolling (and when you need to use it), it didn’t appear to work. So how do you differentiate the iPhone (and other touch based devices) from a regular browser?

A little post for those that run into the same problem I had with TinyMCE and blank instances not quite being blank. I created a little configuration to remove empty HTML tags.

The “UK Accessibility Roundtable for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010″, a HiSoftware event at Microsoft’s offices in London Victoria. The day revolved around several demos of SharePoint 2010 and Compliance Sheriff, and was fleshed it out with some quite good accessibility information. These are my notes on the event, with a lot of interspersed commentary.

I’ve just gotten back from a great day at the Stackoverflow Dev Day, I didn’t take my usual copious notes, but I thought a flavour of proceedings would be good to get down. For those who don’t know me, I have to add the caveat that I’m not a …

I.e. Accessible Rich Internet Applications with Flash, Flex & Air. This presentation by Andrew Kirkpatrick took us through some of the technologies available, with a special eye on the accessibility possibilities and things you need to watch out for.