Dutch translation of WCAG2 in public review

The Dutch translation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 went into public review on November 2, 2009. It will be in review for 30 days. If you are Dutch (or are fluent in Dutch), and especially if you have knowledge in web accessibility, web development or web technologies in general, you might consider taking a look and submitting your comments. Everyone is welcome to participate.

I’m assuming that readers of this website are at least vaguely familiar with the WCAG. If not, you can read more about them on the WAI website, as there is no reason to repeat that information here.

26 organizations worked in varying capacity on this translation, including Cinnamon, represented by myself. The translation was coordinated by Stichting Accessibility, and follows the official procedure for authorized W3C translations.

After the review period, this candidate translation will be modified where necessary. It is expected that a finalized version will follow in December 2009. The current draft is not the finalized version, and may not be published as such.

Please help us review!

If you would like to review, you’ll need both the original English version as well as the candidate Dutch translation. Please send all comments to public-auth-trans-nl@w3.org.

Please note that the review is intended to ensure the correctness of the translation. The actual content of the draft will not be changed.

Please help out if you can! If you can’t review yourself, perhaps you can spread the word about it.

A Dutch-language press release is available (PDF, 72kB).

Grip2009: a two-day workshop for web project leads

It’s no secret to us web designers and developers that at least half of the factors contributing or detracting from web project success resides on the client’s side of the fence. While professional designers and developers know, understand and can exploit the success factors that belong to them, most clients don’t and/or can’t.

It’s for this reason that Eend and Cinnamon have spent a lot of time putting together a workshop which we feel will help clients, their project leads and/or managers to get the best out of the web shops they hire. The two-day workshop has been designed to expose clients to the potential success factors and pitfalls on their side of the project, and to give them the tools to use this knowledge to their advantage. The entire project process from bidding to post-launch evaluation will be examined. We’ve got great speakers with very high-level, client-side web project (management) expertise, as well as a few on the development side for a well-rounded whole.

Grip—or rather Grip2009, as this first workshop is called—will be held on November 17 and 18, 2009, at the very posh (no, not that POSH) Grand Hotel Karel V in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

While there are plenty of workshops and conferences for developers on building better sites, there is little practical information for clients on how to ensure a successful web project. We’re excited about Grip2009. We hope it will give clients the tools they need to engage with their web contractors like never before.

Unfortunately, this first edition of Grip will be completely in Dutch. We haven’t ruled out an international (English) event for the near future.

For any Dutch readers, here’s the press release (feel free to distribute):

BEGIN PERSBERICHT —

Grip2009 – Tweedaagse workshop voor webprojectleiders

Op 17 en 18 november 2009 wordt in Grand Hotel Karel V te Utrecht een tweedaagse workshop voor opdrachtgevers van webprojecten gegeven: Grip2009. Het programma is samengesteld door ervaren internetprofessionals en levert, naast nuttige tips, bruikbare kennis en vaardigheden uit de praktijk om grip te krijgen op webprojecten. De nieuwe workshop, die dit jaar voor het eerst wordt gegeven, richt zich op opdrachtgevers die hun internetprojecten beter willen begeleiden.

Voor opdrachtgevers van webprojecten bij het bedrijfsleven, not-for-profit-organisaties en de overheid is er momenteel weinig concrete en in de praktijk bewezen informatie beschikbaar hoe deze projecten tot een succes zijn te maken. Dat verandert met de komst van Grip2009. De workshop is bij uitstek geschikt voor mensen die aan klantzijde betrokken zijn bij de inkoop, de ontwikkeling en het beheer van internetprojecten, of mensen die een carrièrestap overwegen in deze richting.

Er zijn maximaal 60 plaatsen beschikbaar voor dit unieke evenement. Snelle beslissers kunnen tot 16 oktober profiteren van een flinke korting. Meer informatie vindt u op: www.grip2009.nl

EINDE PERSBERICHT —

Livre (OpenMagazine) stops publication

Livre (formerly OpenMagazine), a Dutch web magazine covering digital sustainability issues, has ceased activity after four years of publication. The focus of the articles slanted toward subjects such as open source software and open standards. Way back in 2005, I wrote an article for OpenMagazine on increasing website accessibility(Dutch language, PDF, 2.7Mb) through the use of open web standards. Of course, my article was based on my work for the Dutch Web Guidelines which had been published in 2004. The guidelines promote the use of XHTML 1.0 Strict. Ironically, Anne van Kesteren‘s article in the same issue discusses the problems with XHTML (By the way, this discussion refuses to die). Ah, the good old days.