I’ll be speaking tomorrow in Utrecht, Netherlands on truths and myths regarding the Dutch Web Guidelines. I’d like to speak more about design in front-end development, but I guess the Web Guidelines are hot, and since I had a role in producing them, I get asked to talk about them. A lot.
As with any usability or accessibility guidelines, there are some myths which keep rearing their heads. These myths came to be in the minds of clients, mostly because because of what these clients have been told by hack, unprofessional front-end developers. You know, the kind who design websites based on what their framework or CMS is able to handle in its more or less standard form; god forbid these developers should know the faintest thing about decent markup. I’m tired of hearing what’s not possible within accessibility guidelines, especially when it’s simply untrue.
We’ll be talking about that.
For the Dutch among you, read more on the Zinformatie website.
Apologies to any attendees of my presentation for Logeion who expected to find the slides on this site. You might have had trouble, because while I did add them to the site, I was flaky enough not to add them to the Presentations page. Somehow I doubt anyone lost sleep over it, but you can find the slides there now.
It’s been a very busy few months, and November is no exception. In addition to an unholy amount of client work at Cinnamon, this month has brought a couple of speaking engagements.
On November 8th I had the privilege of taking part in a panel discussion at the eNederland conference about web accessibility and the new Quality Model for Websites. The Quality Model is heavily based on the Dutch Web Guidelines for government websites, and is an effort to encourage businesses to conform to accessibility and usability best practices. Other members of the panel were Gerlach Cerfontaine (President and CEO of Schiphol Group) , Rabobank ICT-manager Harrie Vollard and Thuiswinkel.org director Wijnand Jongen. There is a photo and a summary (in Dutch) at the website of the Taskforce for Handicap and Society, one of the initiators of the Quality Model project.
Next Thursday (November 29th), I’ll be doing a presentation for Logeion Association for Communication on real-world application of accessibility and usability guidelines, and the impact on online communication. Ruben Timmerman will present some case studies on the business application of usability principles. More information is available (in Dutch) at the Logeion website.
