Author
Joe Clark
Toronto journalist and author Joe Clark used to work in the field of web accessibility. His ongoing missions are to raise enough money to start his own research project and to publish further books.
Entries by Joe Clark
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Web Standards for E-books
E-books aren't going to replace books. E-books are books, merely with a different form. More and more often, that form is ePub, a format powered by standard XHTML. As such, ePub can benefit from our nearly ten years’ experience building standards-compliant websites. That's great news for publishers and standards-aware web designers. Great news for readers, too. Our favorite genius, Joe Clark, explains the simple why and how.
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Unwebbable
It's time we came to grips with the fact that not every “document” can be a semantic “web page.” Some forms of writing just cannot be expressed in HTML—or they need to be bent and distorted to do so. But for once, XML can help. Joe Clark explains.
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This is How the Web Gets Regulated
As in finance, so on the web: self-regulation has failed. Nearly ten years after specifications first required it, video captioning can barely be said to exist on the web. The big players, while swollen with self-congratulation, are technically incompetent, and nobody else is even trying. So what will it take to support the human and legal rights of hearing impaired web users? It just might take the law, says Joe Clark.
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To Hell with WCAG 2
The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are about to be updated for the first time since 1999. Joe Clark takes a close look at WCAG 2 and reports back.
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Big, Stark & Chunky
You’ve designed for the screen and made provision for blind, handheld, and PDA browser users. But what about low-vision people? Powered by CSS, “zoom” layouts convert wide, multicolumn web pages into low-vision-friendly, single column designs. Accessibility maven Joe Clark explores the rationale and methods behind zoom layouts. Board the zoom train now!
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Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility
PDF accessibility is not as straightforward as HTML accessibility. But it can be done, if you put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites.
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How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself
An upcoming revision to the Web Accessibility Guidelines is in danger of becoming unrealistically divorced from real-world web development, yielding guidelines that are at once too vague and too specific. Your expertise and input can help create realistic guidelines that work.
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Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement
Fahrner Image Replacement and its analogues aim to combine the benefits of high design with the requirements of accessibility. But how well do these methods really work? Accessibility expert Joe Clark digs up much-needed empirical data on how FIR works (and doesn’t) in leading screen readers.
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Flash MX: Clarifying the Concept
In a detailed survey, accessibility obsessive Joe Clark evaluates Flash MX (authoring tool and player) in the context of the often confusing WAI and Section 508 guidelines, finds some things to cheer about, and draws a roadmap for future improvements.
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All the Access Money Can Buy
Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly access, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.
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Flash Access: Unclear on the Concept
Accessible Flash looks great on paper. But can Macromedia really pull it off? And do enough designers care? Joe Clark offers insight into Macromedia’s press release and poses questions for Macromedia to consider.
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The Web is Like Canada
Those who "get" the web create it. Those who do not get the web are put in charge. Joe Clark presents a vision for defending our web against their worst ideas.
