Archive for April, 2010

Blogging against Disablism Day 2010

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2010Saturday 1st May is Blogging Against Disablism Day:

This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people will blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination. In this way, we hope to raise awareness of inequality, promote equality and celebrate the progress we’ve made.

Diary of a Goldfish

For this event last year I wrote a piece entitled Defining Disablism which proved popular and sparked some good discussions.

I’m still undecided on what I will cover this year, and indeed may wait until the day before finally committing. It will certainly have a web focus. Watch this space! (update – didn’t get a chance to do this on the day but pulling something together now and will post soon!)

Visit the Diary of a Goldfish site to see a list of other bloggers taking part in the day, as well as links to posts from previous years.

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Better Connected 2010 – comparing the 4 star homepages

Monday, April 26th, 2010

As we’re currently considering designs for our organisation’s new website homepage, I thought it would be interesting to bring together all of the 11 local authority websites which were awarded the full 4 stars by SOCITM’s Better Connected 2010 report.

View homepage screenshots from the top 11 councils

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Hard lessons in social media: political suicide

Friday, April 9th, 2010

I’ve just updated my list of social media lessons learned the hard way with details of a Labour candidate who appears to have committed political suicide on Twitter.

Read more about Stuart MacLennan’s costly social media gaffe

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CSS Naked Day 2010

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Today (April 9th) is CSS Naked Day – a chance for web developers to show just how accessible their sites are by stripping them of their CSS and seeing how they hold up. With proper use of HTML, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure and no reliance on purely visual elements, any site should be able to lose its styling without making its content inaccessible.

Although no official mention of the day has appeared on the site which started it all, it seems a lot of people have made sure to observe the tradition again this year.

This is a fun idea, fully in line with the reasons for creating CSS in the first place. While most designers are attracted by the extra presentational capabilities, saving HTML from becoming a presentational language was probably a more important motivation for most people who participated in the beginning.

HÃ¥kon Wium Lie

Just as with last year, I’ve stripped the CSS from my own site and it looks just fine (albeit a little dull!). I know of various other web developers who have done the same, and it’s an excellent visual way of checking that you’re up to scratch in terms of web standards.

Screenshot of my site with CSS switched off

Website without CSS

For anyone interested in this technique, the excellent Web Developer toolbar (FireFox add-on) has a handy option to turn off CSS styles.

Web Developer toolbar

Web Developer toolbar

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Virtual Backpack

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Virtual BackpackLast week I met with the company behind Virtual Backpack – a new service which offers safe, secure online storage of vital info such as passport details, national insurance numbers and medical history.

“Virtual Backpack is a stroke of genius…”

John Bird, founder of the Big Issue

The service is aimed at young homeless and vulnerable people, who run a high risk of losing such details (for example, due to theft or loss), although it could easily have wider applications. The service allows quick and easy access to these details, and also offers a platform for recording other personal details, previous addresses, work experience and useful contacts. Through integration with Microsoft’s Live Services, users can also access email, photo and document storage facilities.

“Virtual Backpack is a safe and secure place to store vital information and is a huge asset for any young person facing homelessness”

Lord Mayor of Birmingham

The potential of such a service is obvious, and although I can see a few possible issues, it’s a great idea. The developers are now hoping that local authorities will pay a licence fee to get access for their citizens, although I’d be interested to see a more centralised approach given the potentially transient nature of some of the target audience. Either way, this is a product to watch out for.

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