20:
Last week I started reading Kevin Yank‘s (@sentience) book, Build your own database driven web site using PHP and MySQL. I bought a copy from Sitepoint when it was part of their advent promotion.
It’s only early days at the moment, but it seems relatively straight forward so far.
One of my main concerns with learning any programming language is that I’ll learn enough to get things to work, but not enough to build something secure and scalable. Kevin addresses this early on in the book which has reassured me that I’m learning to do things The Right Way.
Hopefully with a bit of work I’ll soon be able to add another skill to my CV.
Disclosure: I’ve made those affiliate links – hope you don’t mind.
13:
So its a week since I wrote to the About My Vote website about the accessibility of their forms and I haven’t heard any reply. I sent them another email today.
Hello,
I sent you an email last week regarding the accessibility of this website, but have recieved no reply. I see today that the problem still hasn’t been fixed.
The issue is to do with the forms on the website. The labels for each field are currently not associated correctly with the corresponding fields. This can make the website difficult to use for people with disabilities such as poor eyesight.
Under UK law, all websites which provide a service should be made accessible. You can read more about this on the COI website (http://coi.gov.uk).
Fixing this problem would be a fairly trivial code change and would make the website more usable for a particularly disenfranchised section of society.
You can associate the form elements and labels using the “for” attribute. This should be added to the “label” element and should be have the same value as the “id” attribute on the corresponding “input” or “select” element.
Once again, if you would like to discuss this problem and it’s solution please get in touch.
Best regards
David Owens
07:
I got an email a few weeks ago from Desirable Dot Coms offering me the .com of a .org domain I already owned. This is why you should not buy a domain from them. Teaser: They don’t even own it.
This is the email I recieved.
From: domains@desirabledotcoms.com
Subject: hoxygen.com
Date: 31 March 2010 22:15:03 GMT+02:00
We are selling the domain name hoxygen.com. Since you own hoxygen.org if you would like the more desirable .com version we are making it available to you. The one time cost is $99.97. That includes a full year of registration and transfer of ownership to you. To purchase or to learn more go to:
http://www.desirabledotcoms.com/checkout.php?domain=hoxygen.com
If you pass on this opportunity someone else could purchase this domain and it may not be available again. If you are not interested we will not contact regarding this domain.
I was vaguely tempted, but didn’t fancy handing over $99 and deleted the email.
Today I received this one.
From: domains@desirabledotcoms.com
Subject: hoxygen.com
Date: 7 April 2010 18:26:47 GMT+02:00
Recently we contacted you regarding hoxygen.com. We noticed that you viewed the offer but did not make a purchase. We would like to offer you one final opportunity to secure this domain for just $39.97 a full 60% off our regular rate. To purchase please use this link for the discount:
http://www.desirabledotcoms.com/discount.php?domain=hoxygen.com
If you are not interested there is no need to reply. We will not contact you again regarding this domain.
Thank you.
Desirable Dot Coms
Desirabledotcoms.com
This made me take a second look and do a bit of research about the company. I quickly found this post about desirabledotcoms.com. Sure enough, when I checked the domain wasn’t registered to anybody. So rather than $99.97, or even the discounted rate of $39.97, I bought it at the regular price from 1 & 1 where I already have an account.
06:
It’s very often all too easy to point out other people accessibility problems without doing anything constructive. If you spot an problem on somebody’s website don’t just bitch on Twitter, help them to fix it.
Here is the feedback I sent to the Electoral Commision’s About my vote website today. With hindsight, I could maybe have used simpler language but this is at least a step in the right direction.
Hello,
I noticed today that the labels on your forms are not properly associated with the corresponding inputs in the HTML. This can make it much harder for people with a range of disabilities to interact with the forms.
You can associate the form elements and labels using the “for” attribute. This should be added to the “label” element and should be have the same value as the “id” attribute on the corresponding “input” or “select” element.
If you would like to discuss this problem and it’s solution please get in touch, although your usual web team should be able to easily fix this.
Best Regards
David Owens
rss feed