> hello all, > Ive started designing sites for this company that specilizes in .net > databases driven/xml feed type sites. I just give them a graphics file and > they slice it up. Anyway they asked me yesterday if i could do this > particular job with web accessability in mind. But heres the thing-when they > mark up my designs and ad the vb .net code a typical page will be running > validation errors in the hundreds. I told them that they need to start with > web standards and get thier pages to validate before they start on > accessability. > Was that sound advice?
The process of graphics mockup -> slicing -> table layout is the problem. That process has nothing to do with the content or the document flow. Document flow is the big deal with accessibility; if they want to make accessible websites, you need to tell them that the tables have to go, HTML or XHTML. Show them what semantics are, talk about doing graphics as background, using divs, text/image replacement techniques, navigating with a keyboard, etc. Most importantly, and this is a long term approach, I think your place in the design process needs to change... the layout / content etc should come before the graphics. With CSS and semantic code you can build the layout first and then add all the graphics in. It sounds like right now your graphics drive the layout and then the content is just dropped in, and to be really semantic it's probably better to work the other way around. -- -- C Montoya rdpdesign.com ... liquid.rdpdesign.com ... montoya.rdpdesign.com ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
