Unrepentant » Rants

My Thing About the Thing That Thing Wrote About Thing

John — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:21:45 +0000

Late last week, Divya Manian wrote an article entitled Our Pointless Pursuit Of Semantic Value, where, after sort of getting things half-right, half-wrong she concludes with the following:

There is no harm using div elements; you can continue using them instead of section and article. I think we should use the new elements to make your mark-up readable, not for any inherent semantic advantage.

Divya is quite confused about web accessibility. I examine everything she says in a detailed, semi-sarcastic, no-holds barred manner. Conclusion: Semantics matter - a lot.

Not The Blog Post I Was Going To Write Today

John — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:15:40 +0000

Death to CAPTCHAs – do your part. The user-pain inflicted by CAPTCHAs on persons with disabilities are well known and documented. Not only are CAPTCHAs impossible to decipher for non-visual users (the entire premise of CAPTCHAS is that you can see something that a computer cannot), but they also are difficult-to-impossible for users with cognitive disabilities, low-vision users, your Mom, my Dad and very often you and me.

A Letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary

John — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:43:31 +0000

John Conyers, Jr. Chairman U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Washington, DC Dear Mr. Conyers, You don’t know me. However, I feel that at the very least you should know that I’ve dedicated the last decade of my life working towards making the Internet accessible to everyone. To you, your family and friends, [...]