Criteria for a new web host

Our church is looking at web hosting options. One criterion is to let an average person maintain the web. A second key criterion is to be able to "touch the code" if we have a person capable of doing that.

Below is the long list of criteria we're using to compare web hosting solutions and site builder type options:

• Offers a Content Management System (CMS) and templates suitable for our church's use. The CMS should let nearly everyone (with minimal orientation) add, edit, or delete text, add or delete images, create or delete pages, and upload files.Templates must be pure CSS -- no use of tables for layout.
• XHTML templates are preferred, though XML is OK as long as layout and CSS can be directly edited. (I'm resisting having to devote enough time to learn XML coding for very little benefit -- I won't use it at work, for example.)
  
• Ability to directly edit the code as well as use the CMS.
• Must allow addition of alternate text and/or titles to image code (for accessibility).
• Ability to upload files via FTP or via Web.
• Absolutely no ads or forced frames with hosting company info showing.
• Templates must allow inserting of multiple-level CSS fly-out menus -- horizontal or vertical or both. Single-level menus are not good enough, if we're going to improve the navigation, which we intend to do.
• The web hosting company must be an established one.
• 24 x 7 support. Email is OK, though phone is better.
• Hosting firm has good ratings (when I can find them).
• A very high percentage web server uptime.
• Offers hosting on Windows 2003 server (in order to keep our options open).
• The hosting package includes room for our web to grow (pages/disk space)
• Offers at least 30 email addresses, auto-forwarding, POP access, and Spam filtering.
• Hosting solution is $300 or less per year. (E-Zekiel is way out of our price range for the size web we have.)
• Domain name registration/renewal is inexpensive (these should be very low cost these days).

Optional, but desired features:

• Ability to upload and offer podcasts of sermons
• Ability to embed video (YouTube or similar)
• Ability to display RSS feeds on selected pages (like Blogger's new XML template system allows).

Web Directions South resources now online

Get session notes, handouts, speakers' slides, and eventually podcasts of the sessions for the Web Directions South conference held in Syndey from September 26-29, 2006 at WD06 Resources.

Session topics include:

• Design
• Accessibility
• Web standards
• RSS
• Online communities

Surf and learn.

Use Google's new Accessible Search

Google Accessible Search searches for pages that are easy to read for the visually handicapped. That is, if your web page is easy for a screen reader to handle, it scores higher in the results.

This is one way to test out accessibility of your web pages for visually impaired people. Test it by doing some searches that you'd hope got your web page in the first page of the rankings. If the rankings are not what you'd like, get to work on SEO (search engine oiptimization) and accessibility.

Tips for accessibile web pages

Below are some ways to make your web pages more accessible to the handicapped. Read more at the W3C's "Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web sites".

• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and a logical, consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read by itself. For example, avoid "click here."
• Images. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each image. Avoid animated images.
• Tables. Use tables for data,not layout. Ensure that line-by-line reading ("linearization") of data tables makes sense.
• Graphs and charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute. Offer a data table.
• Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case the user's browser or settings does not support these features.
• Frames. If you must use frames, at least use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
• Proofing. Check your work, validate pages, and use the tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG.

"Skip to content" link code

You can improve accessibility to a web page by adding a "Skip to content" link that jumps past the header and any navigation area on your web page and goes straight to the text ("meat") of the information on the page. But you don't necessarily want sighted people seeing a link they might not use. What to do?

One solution is to add a special class that hides the text. Example:

.skip2content {display: none}

This lets screen readers for the visually handicapped hear the link and use it but hides it form the display for a sighted person.

• How to add "Skip to content" in a Classic Blogger Blog

Are there any situations where you'd want to display that link? Perhaps. Consider a person with a motor handicap -- they can see just fine, but it takes them much longer to move a mouse or other pointing device around. They may well want the ability to Tab to that link and press Enter to jump to the page's text. In such a case, they'd need to be able to see the link.

Why adopt accessibility guidelines?

Web developer Andy Hagans found that a high degree of web page accessibility greatly improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO)." Do you want better search engine ranking? Make your web pages more accessible.

Andy had this "Road to Damascas" moment after editing his website to comply with most W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

• Read Andy's full article

Get web page report

WebXACT is a free single-page test utility that reports on quality, accessibility, and privacy. Test one of your pages. The results can be an eye-opener.

They can also lead you to site-wide improvements. This from the Watchfire people who make Bobby, the accessibility checker.

Free IBM utilities help an aging population

Now that the Boomers are heading toward retirement, you can expect many parts of our society to be catering more to seniors. One example ... IBM has produced some free software to help seniors and people with disabilities.

• aDesigner - a disability simulator that helps us Web designers check pages for accessibility and usability by the visually impaired.
• Web Adaptation Technology - makes surfing and reading web pages easier.
• Keyboard Optimizer - lets a user adjust a keyboard to suit their particular typing habits.
• Mouse Smoothing Software - smooths out mouse movements for people with a hand tremor.
• Head tracking Pointer - lets a person with an inexpensive camera use their face to point the screen.

Caution: Many people are color blind

An item in the "Clicked" blog at MSNBC references an article that says 1 in 12 people have some sort of color blindness. That's a much higher percentage than web developers usually think. In fact, I discovered that I have a slight blue-green color blindness.

The impact? Web developers need to take action:

• get some facts about the different types of color blindness
• follow accessibility techniques to make your pages easier to view by more people. For example, avoid using the colors red or green for anything important -- red-green color blind people see them as sort of shades of gray. In fact, that's why I edited the default template for this blog to change the dateline and "Links" area text from shades of green to shades of blue.
• check out sites that show you differences for various color-blind conditions.

An example cited in the MSNBC article is an MSNBC page that showed small photos, which "brightened" when you hover your mouse over them. The problem was that they weren't easily to tell apart for some people. And (originally) a red border was added to the photo.

Recent research shows that we all have differently "wired" retinas.