[Accessibleweb] Please check this page

[Terry Thompson]

Hi Marcus, 

This site generally looks good. It's mostly text, and well-structured.  I'm
not sure how to interpret your request to "Please ignore the design" - my
main concerns are design-related, so I apologize for not ignoring them: 

1. I have relatively "normal" vision, but I find it difficult to see the
small font in both the horizontal and vertical navigation menus. Looks like
that's set to 80%? I'm personally a believer in 100% or 1em wherever
possible. That way users at least get the browser's default font size. If
some users have a *preference* for smaller fonts, put the burden on them to
make the font smaller in their browser, rather than putting the burden on
people who have a *need* for normal-sized or larger fonts.  

2. The layout doesn't scale well if a user needs or chooses to enlarge it in
Firefox. Try Ctrl + in Firefox, and you'll see what I mean. This is a
not-uncommon problem, and I suppose one could blame Firefox for having a
zoom model that doesn't automatically preserve all the spatial relationships
like IE7 and Opera do. Actually I see it's a little off in IE7 too (again,
use Ctrl + to zoom). 

Hey Rick, I think this is the type of thing you're going to be covering in
your session next Friday, is that correct? Assuming it is, here's a plug: 

Topic: Creating Scalable, Flexible, Cross-browser Pages
     Speaker: Rick Ells
        Date: Friday, February 22, 2007
        Time: 11:30a.m. - 1:00p.m.
    Location: Mary Gates Hall, Room 015L

3. There is at least one place where there isn't enough contrast between
foreground text and background color (in the "Graduate" area, where you have
blue on blue). You can check color contrast ratios using the Colour Contrast
Analyzer, which is available here: 
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrast-analyser.html

I'm not seeing any drop-down menus. 

Terry

Terry Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, Accessibility Services
UW Technology Services
University of Washington
tft at u.washington.edu
206/221-4168 
 
 


> -----Original Message-----

> From: accessibleweb-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu 

> [mailto:accessibleweb-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On 

> Behalf Of Marcus Duke

> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:25 AM

> To: UW Web Accessibility Group

> Subject: [Accessibleweb] Please check this page

> 

> A favor, if you would. Please check out the beta template I'm 

> developing for Program on the Environment, as displayed at:

> 

> http://depts.washington.edu/poeweb/test_site/ugprograms/index.html

> 

> I was pleased to get the Wave 4.0 message, "WAVE has detected 

> no accessibility errors," and Web Accessibility Checker 

> yielded a conditional pass with no known, 1 likely, and 60 

> potential problems (the latter of which contained a lot of 

> comments that were either off the mark completely, debatable, 

> or I just don't understand them). But I am interested in 

> comments from live bodies, too. (And I'll continue trying a 

> couple other accessibility sites).

> 

> Please ignore the design; a significant redesign is in the 

> works, but in the meantime, I'm trying to set up as tight a 

> presentation package, one that will enable us to apply a new 

> design as easily as possible. Also please note the client 

> insists on dropdown menus.  

> (Only a couple of the menu links go to pages that have the 

> same CSS/ Javascript back-end.) I bought a commercial 

> extension for Dreamweaver (client wants to maintain site with 

> this) that the developer claims is accessible-friendly, and 

> indeed, the tests so far don't seem to be throwing up any red flags.

> 

> Marcus Duke

> Aquatic & Fishery Sciences

> and

> Washington Sea Grant

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