Resources

[Please note: This list of resources is no longer maintained and updated. This version, however, is.]

On this page:

• Web Standards
• HTML & CSS
• CSS Layout
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines
• Accessibility
• Accessibility News
• Colour
• Flash Accessibility
• Content / Style / Language
• Assistive technology
• Browsers
• Quality Control, Validation & Testing
• Usability
• Interface Design
• University Accessibility Policy
• Legislation
• Books
• Software
• More Guides and Resources
• Reference Material

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Web Standards

• W3C World Wide Web Consortium
• The Web Standards Project (a coalition of web developers and users)
• WebTechniques: Raise Your Standards by Molly E. Holzschlag.
• A List Apart: Convincing Your Clients to go with Standards
• Design rant, by Owen Briggs - well-written introduction to the rationale of standards and CSS layout.
• A List Apart: Fixing your site with the right DOCTYPE
• A List Apart: To hell with bad browsers (Feb 2001)
• A List Apart: Browser Upgrade Initiative
• Webmonkey: The Secret Life of Markup by Steve Champeon.
• [de] Webstandards sind auf dem Vormarsch.

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HTML & CSS

HTML

• xHTML 1.0 Specifications
• HTML 4.01 Specifications
• W3C Technical Reports and Publications: Recently published recommendations
• Evolt: The xHTML Transition: It's not that difficult

CSS

• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS1) Level 1 Specification
• Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2) Specification
• HTML 4.01 Specifications: Style Sheets
• WebReview.com's Style Sheet Reference Guide
• Web Design Group: Cascading Style Sheets (tutorials, references)
• Adding a touch of style, by Dave Raggett from the W3C
• w3schools.com: CSS tutorial.
• WebReview: Style Sheet Reference Guide

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CSS layout

Resources for the transition to a tableless site layout using CSS. The links below contain anything from articles for beginners to alternative stylesheet how-to and the @import trick.

• Design rant, by Owen Briggs - well-written introduction to the rationale of standards and CSS layout.
• Zeldman's A List Apart (read regularly for tips, techniques and discussions):
  • all CSS articles.
  • especially: Practical CSS Layout: Tips, Tricks and Techniques.
• Eric A. Meyer (*the* CSS guru):
  • Eric Meyer on CSS.
  • especially: Tricking browsers and hiding styles.
  • Meyerweb CSS.
  • all his articles.
  • especially: css/edge.
• Webreference: CSS Layout Resources and Information.

Print stylesheet

• Evolt: Kissing Print Versions of Pages Goodbye.
• Eric Meyer for A List Apart: Going to print.
• Meyerweb: Print Different.

Mailing lists

• css-discuss (run by Eric Meyer) [sign-up] [archives]
• [de] CSS Design (german mailing list)

Template reservoirs

• glish.com: CSS Layout Techniques: for Fun and Profit
• Bluerobot CSS layout reservoir
• saila.com - CSS Layouts - templates foe tableless, CSS-based, liquid, three-column layout.

Netscape 4

• Craig Saila: CSS Layouts for Netscape 4
• Mark Howell: CSS and Netscape 4

Tables

But if you want to stick with tables, don't despair. Zeldman says they're ok if used wisely;

• Zeldman: Table Layouts, Revisited
• Evolt: Revisiting "Table Layouts, Revisited".

Using WYSIWYGs

If you're thinking of letting Dreamweaver create a tableless layout for you, you should read this first:

• Evolt: The Wrong Way to Use CSS in Page Layouts.

Famous re-designs

• Wired News: A Site for Your Eyes (October 2002)
• W3C Home Page Table-less Layout: HOWTO and FAQ (November 2002)
• Netscape DevEdge Redesigns As Standards Showcase (February 2003)

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W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (Working Draft)
• HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Core Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• List of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (by priorities)
• Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (tabular summary of checkpoints, a handy tool for checking your own website's accessibility features against the WAI guidelines.)
• Curriculum for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (a step by step walk-through for workshops, self-study or reference)
• W3C Technical Reports and Publications (a list of recently published recommendations).

Alternatively...

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Guidelines: developing an approach, by Jim Byrne - an attempt to provide a 'more gentle route towards understanding them'.

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Accessibility

• Web Design for Dyslexic Users
• Use of ALT texts in IMGs
• Web Authoring Strategies for Voice Browsers
• Making Your Web Site Accessible to the Blind by Curtis Chong, National Federation of the Blind, US
• The "Break this page!" experiment (an experiment in access to photographs contained in Web pages)
• Improving accessibility with ACCESSKEY in HTML forms and links
• Accessible Forms
• A better printable page, by Joe Clark.
• Building a Barrier-Free Web: Making your site accessible to the disabled is good business, by Susan Kuchinskas, New Architect, December 2002
• Web Accessibility with HTML 4.0, by Molly E. Holzschlag, Webtechniques, December 1999.
• Joe Clark's AccessiBlog: Screen readers (collection of articles and resources).

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Accessibility News

• Joe Clark's Accessiblog
• Federal Computer Week Accessibility News

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Colour

• Colour Blind Design Hints and Tips
• Considering the Color-Blind by Chuck Newman (Aug 2000)
• Color Vision, Color Deficiency
• Ishihara Test for Color Blindness - test if you are colourblind.
• Effective Color Contrast: Designing for People with Partial Sight and Color Deficiencies
• The Production of Colour Teaching Materials and Colour Blindness
• Vischeck - simulates how a page looks to someone with a colour deficit.
• VisiBone: Color Deficient Vision
• Colour Picker and Tester - Test your background and text colour combinations here to see how different types of colourblindness perceive them.
• Evolt.org: Visual Design: Combining Colors
• Cultural associations of color.
• Web Design for Dyslexic Users

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Flash Accessibility

• A List Apart: Flash access: Unclear on the concept by Joe Clark.
• A List Apart: Flash-MX: Clarifying the Concept, by Joe Clark (April 2002).
• A List Apart: Flash-MX: Moving Toward Accessible Rich Media, by Andrew Kirkpatrick (April 2002).

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Content / Style / Language

• Guidelines For Improving Content Usability For The Web, by Ganeman Russel.
• Web Writing for Many Interest Levels by Nathan Wallace.
• Usable Web: Writing Styles (collection of articles and guidelines on writing for the web).
• Usable Web: Content (articles on the relationship between good content and usable user interfaces).
• Webtechniques: Using Language to Persuade Web Audiences by Molly E. Holzschlag.
• A List Apart: Language: The Ultimate User Interface, by Julia Hayden.
• Words, Words, Words (usability of text content).
• W3C Recommendations: Language information and text direction.
• Useit.com: Writing for the Web (Research on how users read on the Web and how authors should write their Web pages. Mainly based on studies by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen. Writing Style Guide, links).
• Webreference: Writing on the Internet (articles on style, grammar, punctuation and everything else you need for that professional look).
• Webreference: Writing Well for the Web (Quick and Easy Tips for Non-writers).
• Code for the Representation of the Names of Languages.

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Assistive technology

• TechDis Accessibility Database - a database of assistive technology products, hardware, software.

Screen readers and voice browsers

• W3C: Alternative Web Browsing - specialized browsers, screen readers, adaptive browsers, voice browsers etc.
• Article: Web Authoring Strategies for Voice Browsers
• Joe Clark's AccessiBlog: Screen readers (collection of articles and resources).
• IBM Home Page Reader
• JAWS for Windows
• HAL (and other Dolphin Access Software) [US] [UK]
• outSPOKEN
• Windows-Eyes.
• Emacspeak.
• Speakup for Linux.

Screen magnifiers

• Supernova Reader Magnifier (Combined magnification, speech & Braille for Windows).
• ZoomText (Trial Download).

More

• Controlling Computers With Neural Signals - article in the Scientific American about controlling computers with electrical impulses from nerves and muscles.
• Eye Controlled Media: Present and Future State - thesis that explores the use of eye-gaze tracking. Includes reviews of current eye-gaze based systems.

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Browsers

• One place to find most old and current browsers: Evolt.org Browser archive.

• Opera 7
• Internet Explorer 6
• Netscape Navigator 7
• Mozilla
• Lynx (text-only browser)
• Amaya (the W3C's editor and browser)
• One place to find them all: Evolt.org Browser archive

Text-only browsers

• Lynx

Text-only browser emulators

• Lynx-Me
• Lynx Viewer
• Anybrowser

Browser accessibility

• Mozilla Accessibility (Netscape 6 is based on Mozilla).
• Opera Software - Accessibility
• Internet Explorer 6 Accessibility Features.
• Internet Explorer 5 Accessibility Features.
• Older Versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Browser statistics

• TheCounter - Global Stats (browser usage for people who visit TheCounter)

Browser compatibility guides and charts

• Webmonkey Reference: Browser Chart
• Webreview: Browser Compatibility Chart
• Webreview: Style Sheet Reference Guide by Eric A. Meyer

WebTV

• WebTV Viewer (MSN TV)
• Webmonkey: Getting Your Site Ready for WebTV (1998)
• Webreference: WebTV Design Guide For Webmasters
• NTL WebTV design guidelines (specific to NTL but nevertheless a very informative list of the limitations of WebTV)
• Designing for TV (MSN TV)

Small devices

• Deck-it previewer - WAP emulator

Articles

• Webreview: Browsers, Browsers, Browsers! A Strategic Guide to Browser Interoperability (Dec 2000)
• Webreview: Common Browser Implementation Issues

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Quality Control, Validation & Testing

Code Validators

• W3C HTML Validation Service
• W3C CSS Validator Service

Accessibility Checkers

• Bobby - the best known accessibility checker. Checks for Priority 1, 2 and 3 Accessibility, Browser Compatibility Errors and Download Time.
• WAVE Accessibility Checker 2.01
• WAVE Web Accessibility Validator (3.0 alpha)
• Accessibility Toolkit - the accessibility testing meta page.
• A-Prompt Toolkit - downloadable software that evaluates web pages for accessibility problems.
• W3C WAI: Evaluation, Repair, and Transformation Tools for Web Content Accessibility.
• Free Accessibility Assessment by SSB Technologies.
• Vicheck Color Vision Simulator - simulates how a page looks to someone with a colour deficit.
• [de] Sehbehinderungs-Simulator - demonstrates the effect of a variety of medical eye conditions on a number of pictures. Not for evaluating your website. In german.

Browser Compatibility

• Anybrowser.com
• Deja Vue - historic browser emulator
• Lynx-Me
• Lynx Viewer

WebTV

• WebTV Viewer (MSN TV)

Small devices

• Deck-it previewer - WAP emulator

Articles

• W3C Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility
• Criteria for Web Site Evaluation: Points to consider when performing a site critique.
• Testing & Quality Assurance (Strategies and tools for creating error-free Web documents)

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Usability

• A List Apart: Usability Articles
• Designing for Usability on a Shoestring (tips on where to starts with usability, mentions iterative design and evaluation methods)
• Criteria for optimal web design (designing for usability) by Michael Bernard, Software Usability Research Lab (excellent all-round guide).
• Designing successful websites: put usability first; practice simplicity by John Ashenhurst, Rough Note Magazine, May 2001
• Evolt.org : IA/Usability : The User's Charter (Feb 2001)
• Trace: Designing More Usable Web Sites
• The Usable Web (Tips and techniques for building reader-friendly Web pages)
• Webreview: Usability Matters (March 2000)
• Webreview: Users Matter: Meeting Site Visitor Needs (May 2000)
• Words, Words, Words (usability of text content)
• useit.com. Jakob Nielsen's Website (usability guru)
• Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, May 30, 1999: The Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design
• Usability News: Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter?
• What is the Best Layout for Multiple-Column Web Pages? (fluid or fixed layout)

Fonts

• Five Tips for Type in Online Learning.
• HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study
• Usability News: A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which is Best and When?

Navigation

• Webreview: The Myth of "Seven, Plus or Minus 2"
• Menus & Bullets (tips on how to increase the usability of link presentation)
• Usability News: Where Should You Put the Links? A Comparison of Four Locations

Globalization, Localization

• Liga 1 Weblog (Localization. Internationalisation. Globalisation. Accessibility)
• Secrets of successful web site globalization

User testing

• Jacob Nielsen: First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users (What he means is, don't listen to what users say, watch what they do.)
• Super Easy Usability Testing
• WebReference: Why You Need to Test Your Web Site with Real Users (Jan 2000)
• Web Developer's Virtual Library: Usability Testing in Practice , April 15, 2002
• Measuring User Experience, by Pamela and Steve Ellis, Webtechniques, February 2001.

News / Weblogs

• lucdesk Usability Weblog
• WebWord Usability Weblog
• Usability News - A newsletter of the Software Usability Research Laboratory, Wichita State University. (A collection of useful articles, some of which are listed above.)

Books

See below for a list of books on Usability.

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Interface Design

• Yale Style Manual: Interface Design
• Interface Elements (Tips & techniques for building compatible, usable interfaces)
• A Summary of Principles for User-Interface Design

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University Accessibility Policy

More and more educational institutions now provide their web designers with guidelines, resources and information to ensure that web pages they are responsible for are accessible. Here are a few examples:

• Anglia Polytechnic University Web Accessibility Guidelines
• University of Bath Web Accessibility Guidelines
• University of Bristol Web Accessibility Policy
• University of Leeds Accessibility Guidelines

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Legislation

UK

• Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA).
• Disability Rights Commission: Code of Practice - Post-16 provision.
• Office of the e-Envoy: Guidelines for UK government websites
• UK Resources for Web Accessibility and the Law, by Martin Sloan.
• Web Accessibility and the DDA by Martin Sloan, University of Glasgow.
• Institutional Web sites and Legislation by Martin Sloan.
• Access to e-learning in higher education by disabled students: current public policy issues by Ozcan Konur, University of Sheffield, 2002.
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Act: Part 2 Discrimination in Education by Ozcan Konur, 2001.
• W3C WAI Policies Relating to Web Accessibility: United Kingdom.

USA

• Section 508 - Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications.
• WebAIM: Section 508 Web Accessibility Checklist.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Americans with Disabilities Act
• Jo Clark's AccessiBlog: Government requirements (collection of articles and resources).
• Jo Clark's AccessiBlog: Lawsuits.

EU

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for EU Public Sites

Ireland

• Irish National Disability Authority IT Accessibility Guidelines

More resources

• Global Legal and Policy Resources
• Disability Law and Reality - links to Disability Anti-discrimination laws, Disability Statistics and documents relating to web accessibility from around the world.

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Books

HTML & CSS

• Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation, by Owen Briggs, Steve Champeon, Eric Costello and Matt Patterson. January 2002. Publisher: glasshaus.
  • Evolt.org review

Accessibility

• Building Accessible Websites, by Joe Clark, 2002.
  • Serialization online
  • Book Weblog
• Constructing Accessible Web Sites, by Jim Thatcher et al. glasshaus, April 2002.
  • Table of contents
• Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities, by Michael Paciello. CMP Books, 2000.
  Excerpts available at Webreview:
  • Introducing Web Accessibility
  • Getting to Know the Disabilities Community
  • Web Accessibility: 500 Million and Growing

Usability

• Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug, Roger Black. Que, October 2000.
  • Webword Interview with Krug
  • Read a chapter online: Chapter 2: How we really use the Web.
• The Art & Science of Web Design by Jeff Veen, New Riders, 2001
  • Excerpt at Webreference: Chapter One: Foundations
  • Webword Interview with Veen
• Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen, New Riders Publishing, December 1999.

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Software

PDF

• PDFAloud - free plug-in for Acrobat Reader that reads PDF documents out loud.

Multimedia

• Magpie - a multimedia captioning tool developed by the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)
• Real Media Player
• Microsoft Media Player
• Apple Quicktime Player

Web editors

• Dreamweaver (Demo)
• Amaya (the W3C's editor and browser)

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More guides and resources

Accessibility

• Dive Into Accessibility: 30 days to a more accessible web site - Mark Pilgrim's well-known guide aimed at webloggers, but an excellent tools for everyone. Lets you browse acessibility tips by disability type, by web browser, by publishing tool, etc.
• HTML Writers' Guild AWARE Center
• WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind
• Trace Center Designing More Usable Web Sites
• Guidelines for Accessible Web Design in Spanish
• Web Accessibility Links (Deutsch / German) (über 260 Links zum Thema Web Accessibility und Web Usability)

Usability

• Usable Web (a collection of links about information architecture, human factors, user interface issues, and usable design)
• Website Tips for Designers

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Reference Material

• The Webmaster's Lexicon
• Webopedia

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Last updated: 21 February 2003
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