Ian Blackburn

Ok – that’s a bit unfair – I do like IE8 but the amount of sites that are broken until you switch compatibility on is quite startling!

Developers don’t need to do much to fix it, just add the following header to force IE8 to enter IE7 compatible mode automatically (or change your site to be IE8 compatible of course ;-)

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=EmulateIE7″ />

Note too that in the dialog above Microsoft are creating an updated list of sites that need compatibility mode, so perhaps we won’t need to be so drastic in displaying everything in compat mode.  In fact it’s actually quite a bad idea, because IE8 is standards compliant where-as IE7 isn’t (so much), and so IE 8 is the way forward.

For a deeper understanding read here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/08/27/introducing-compatibility-view.aspx 

Cheers

Ian

[cross posted from: http://blackburnian.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FB8B852EF1AB0B35!1917.entry]

In the UK the DDA (The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995) makes it a legal requirement for service providers to ensure access for disabled customers and if necessary make reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services; this includes web sites (see Part III, 2.2, 4.7, 2.13-2.17, 5.23 and 5.26). 

This almost certainly isn’t news to most of you, but I think there is a large degree of confusion about what creating a DDA Compliant site actually means, if not among the legal profession, it certainly appears to be among the development teams I generally come across.

It seems that in order to be able to claim that a website is DDA compliant, it must be tested against the three checkpoint levels laid down in the WAI guidelines issued by the World-Wide-Web Consortium (W3C). These are of course the commonly quoted A, AA and AAA (levels 1, 2 and 3).  Level AA is recommended and level A is the minimum acceptable standard for accessibility.

However I believe that most developers look at the A, AA, and AAA levels against WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) version 1, which were published in 1999 and required sites that contain no CSS or Script.

Importantly, it seems that DDA compliance could be based on either WCAG Version 1 or Version 2

Version 2 was published on 11 December 2008 and “applies to more advanced technologies, and is more precisely testable” than the previous version. For example, scripting is not forbidden and is even included as techniques to enhance accessibility. And where WCAG 1.0 essentially did not allow flashing or other movement, WCAG 2.0 allows it within defined parameters that won't cause seizures.

So WCAG version 2 opens up the ability to build compliant applications using Silverlight 2, and I have it on good authority that “you can build a WCAG 2.0 acceptable experience using Silverlight”.

So that means:

You can build DDA compliant application in Silverlight 2 by following the WCAG version 2

I will post further on what you will need to do in terms of your Silverlight app to achieve this, but for me at least this is a significant realisation, and I know of at least one client where not being able to do this would have been a show-stopper for Silverlight adoption in their new product.

Perhaps too, with the more realistic WCAG v2 now published, we can start developing web applications in general that are useful, accessible, and legal without resorting to producing a “fall-back WCAG v1 compliant version” and that the majority of web sites that are currently in breach of the law, and have been for over 6 years, can come into line.

Cheers

Ian