Web Accessibility: Old, New Legal Challenges

How did educational institutions reach this point, where they're suddenly vulnerable to increasing risk of legal action over issues of web accessibility? Especially when the issues were so well defined and understood?

Because laws and regulations have, until now, not explicitly addressed web accessibility, case law only caused more confusion, and fixing years of benign neglect is expensive.

@longdesk Excluded from HTML5

The longdesc attribute, a little-used attribute to describe images in more detail that can be accomplished using the alt attribute alone, has been removed from the HTML5 specification by the HTML5 Working Group. This decision was made despite the recommendations by the HTML Accessibility Task Force to include the attribute.

The Shifting Website Marketplace

This is one of several posts inspired by thoughts and conversations while attending the Spring 2010 Internet2 meeting in Arlington, VA.

News from Facebook about their new move to corner market opportunities in the web's social network - Open Graph - is yet another reminder that the web ecosystem can radically change in the blink of an eye. For WebLion, it's a call for us to review the shifting threats and opportunities in our market and determine whether our strategic and tactical plans are still relevant.

The Social Networking Bubble

This is one of several posts inspired by thoughts and conversations while attending the Spring 2010 Internet2 meeting in Arlington, VA.

There's no surprise in the passion and rapidity of the adoption of social networking technologies for teaching and learning. It's exciting, disruptive to the old school methods, and it's game changing; it opens new possibilities for teaching and learning; and it can advance the mission and competitive position of Penn State. And yet, it seems that it has the same scary feel of an investment bubble - everybody is giddy and feeling sexy, so why question its use in the educational institution?

Web Site Trust and Credibility

Privacy statements on Web sites don't usually get noticed, but the statement I found on the site of non-linear creations (http://www.nonlinearcreations.com/whitepaper/index.asp?id=12) is noteworthy for its intent and quality of execution.

Is Accessibility Hard?

The 20 Second survey

I recently sent out a survey to the PSUWeb community asking them a simple question - "Is accessibility hard?" I added a second question - "Why is it hard?"

Web City: visioning our Web presence?

It's a truism that the Web has changed everything. From its humble beginnings as a network of hyperlinked resources scattered among distant outposts, the Web has grown extravagantly in size, sophistication and effect. Complex technical and social structures have emerged that unite geographically dispersed people and small groups into communities of content and purpose.

Open Source is Good for Web Accessibility

The culture of IT organizations has profound effects on the quality of of software deployed and services delivered. Even problems that have clear technical solutions, like web accessibility are strongly affected by social characteristics of the organization. Open source communities provide a model for improving the quality of Web applications.