The hidden truth about Accessibility — Part 2

Max Brockbank — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:36:40 +0000

In my last blog post, I talked about using accessibility standards to improve the SEO of any web page. The theory is that because search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live and Ask are “blind”, constructing your site to work well for those with visual impairment makes them ripe for the Search Engine Spiders too.

But we can take this a stage further; making the site even more accessible AND giving the Search Engines more content to index.

In fact, the use of CSS-styling to add extra content to the page which does not show unless the stylesheet is removed can drastically improve the amount of spiderable text on a web page whilst remaining within Search Engine rules about “hidden” content.

Current W3C standards include the display attribute, which includes the value none. If this style is correctly applied to an element it will not show up in a browser which uses CSS.

For example, we can define a style called .accessible thus …

.accessible { display: none; }

This can be applied using SPAN tags thus …

Now you see me , now you don't!

In a CSS-compliant browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox what is seen is

Now you see me

But remove the style sheets for the page and you see

Now you see me, now you don’t!

This means that text can now be embedded in a web page which only shows up in “accessibility” mode (i.e. when the style sheets are not used).

An example of this might be the addition of explanatory text to a web page link …

Get help with your BlackBerry device, software or billing, and read about BlackBerry training and how to get Technical Support

In the browser, with a style sheet applied, this shows as …

Support

Without a style sheet applied, this shows as …

Get help with your BlackBerry device, software or billing, and read about BlackBerry training and how to get Technical Support

This not only makes more sense to a screen reader, it also provides more spiderable text for search engines to index.

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Four cool aps to Twitter with

Max Brockbank — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:07:08 +0000

Micro blogging is big news, and Twitter is the name of the game. Here are four simple ways to play.

TweetDeck

Based on on Adobe’s Air platform, TweetDeck splits up your Tweets into handy customisable columns: All Updates, Replies and Direct Messages. But it goes further by providing filtering to separate the wheat from the goats. There are many other goodies, but they don’t get in the way. The in-built Tweet “growth predictor” is something to keep an eye on.

Best Feature: fine-toothed filtering

Download From: www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

TwitterFox

This is an Add-On for Firefox which you soon won’t want to be without. It sits quietly in the status bar and checks every few minutes for updates. These can be set to pop up as they arrive, meaning that you never need to explore further, but if you’re away from your keyboard and the Tweets mount up, you can click on the icon and see all the latest entries.

Best Feature: Multiple Twitter accounts accessed in the wink of an eye.

Download From: TwitterFox@Firefox Add-ons

TwitterBerry

The essential Tweet tool for the Blackberry, allows you to keep in touch with those you follow without using the browser. And the cool text entry means you can Tweet anywhere you have network access.

Best Feature: Access your friends’ Tweets in two clicks on the 9.32 from Lewisham

Download From: orangatame.com

Digsby Tweet Icon

One of the best features of multiple IM client Digsby, is the ability to connect to social networks such as Facebook, Google Talk and Twitter — which puts it streets ahead of its rivals.

Best Feature: Like TwitterFox, it also allows you to run multiple Twitter accounts.

Download From: digsby.com