Opera's Developer Relations Team - Have you got the X Factor? Building websites for mobile and disabled users

Have you got the X Factor? Building websites for mobile and disabled users

By Henny Swan. Thursday, 30. October 2008, 08:22:36

Last weekend saw the first ever online conference for web professionals <head>. Spread over three days roughly 80 speakers from different timezones hung out with delegates in virtual rooms speaking on just about any topic you can think of that is web related.

I was all too happy to talk about the cross overs between designing web pages for people with disabilities and people browsing on mobiles and other devices. This is something I've long been intrested in and one of the reasons why I joined Opera as one web really should fit all. In the talk I look at standards and how these underpin the web making it work for anyone anywhere as well as give some practical examples of shared issues and websites. What can't be stressed enough is that if you're already building web pages with accessibility in mind then you're a long way to accomodating mobile users and vice versa. What's more you can also use Opera Dragonfly to check web pages as well as remotely debug pages for mobile access. It's a win, win.

A copy of the presentation Have you got the X Factor? Building websites for mobile and disabled users can be downloaded for more information. It's also worth looking at the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative resources on web content accessibility and the mobile web. If you're still not convinced that users of your site are mobile users then check out our State of the Mobile Web reports that highlight trends towards using social networks and generating content on mobiles as well as looking at niche websites (bird watching anyone?).

Thanks to all who tuned in and thanks for all your questions and comments. For people who had tickets for the conference you should be able to catch a recording soon and if you didn't check back on the <head> site for details on how to access recordings.

Interview John Allsopp of Web Directions and Scroll MagazineOpera Dragonfly alpha 3

Comments

scipio # 2. November 2008, 17:24

Thanks for posting the presentation. I've been trying to make all my HTML work (which isn't particularly much, btw) accessible, but I've found that it takes some time to learn to apply the basic principles. It's too easy to give up and settle for what most consider the great majority of their visitors. (Which is exactly the kind of thinking that's hurt Opera in the past, so as an Opera user I should know not to give up.

)

Henny Swan # 4. November 2008, 18:21

Hi Scipio, thanks for the feedback and great to hear you are working on getting your sites accessible.

I understand what you are saying about getting to grips with the basic principles when busy rushing to get projects complete. You may find articles on accessibility in Dev.Opera useful, and if you have specific questions you could always post them here or in our forums.

Probably the best resource I can point to is our Web Standards Curriculum. This is a complete course to teach people standards-based web development, including HTML, CSS, design principles and background theory, and JavaScript basics. As you probably know accessibility runs through web standards so this is a good starting point.

If there are any aspects of accessibility you or anyone else wants to more about then let me know, I'd be happy to help!