APEX News - August 2009
Disclaimer: Software has been tested thoroughly but APEX cannot be held responsible for any damage to your computer or for the performance of the programs and we are unable to guarantee that any external resources we mention in our newsletters are virus free. We recommend you ensure you have competent virus checking software installed on your computer.
APEX Member Site Owner information
Since the issue of our APEX News for June APEX Member site owners have been kept fully informed as to Badge display issues that had arisen and how to resolve them. Owners had also been sent multiple email notices on the same subject. To the knowledge of this Editor the APEX Board of Directors have given consideration to methods that can be used to avoid the reoccurrence of this and some further items in the future however it's not too late to resolve any Badge issue you may have. Please contact our Director of Memberships immediately. If your web site already displays the current APEX Members Badge with ID please ignore this message.
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HTML Email Survival Guide: Technical and Design Best Practices
Get your FREE gift here. ( Download size approx. 566 kb. )
Sometimes you just get lucky! I was getting desperate trying to find you all a FREE gift when this little gem dropped into my mail box :) It may true that many of us are not marketers however we ALL send emails and In recent years many email marketers have avoided HTML emails fearing deliverability issues and lower response rates. But HTML emails only create problems when they are coded or designed the wrong way and these can easily be avoided with a little guidance. Our FREE gift is a definitive guide that even the most experienced marketers as well as home email senders will find essential for developing HTML emails that get desired results and help to keep you safe. Thanks to LYRIS™ Inc for their free resource.
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Site Accessibility
Opera Web Accessibility Toolbar.
Quick access to some of the most used web accessibility tools for users of the Opera browser. If you are offline not all items will be functional as they need to access scripts and tools located on the WAT-C servers, but if you have Internet access everything will be available to you.
WAVE
Produced by WebAIM you simply enter the address of the site, upload a file or enter a code snippet and see all of the elements identified. You will also receive feedback on the placement and identification of each element and there is also an option for using a Firefox toolbar or installing WAVE in browsers and web pages.
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Vision Australia.
A coalition of people who work to make sure people with all forms of vision problems have equal access to life as anyone else. They offer two toolbars for Internet Explorer and Opera to test how your site will work for someone with impaired vision.
Truwex Online.
This tool checks a range of accessibility options such as section 508, WCAG levels, privacy, broken links and more. Simply go to the page, enter your URL, check the boxes for the items you want checked and it generates reports shortly after that.
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Functional Accessibility Evaluator.
F.A.E provides the user with a report on many aspects of their website using a color coded results page with a nice overview of everything the user needs to know and if one requires more information one simply clicks on any category to see further detailed comments.
Firefox Accessibility Extension.
A browser toolbar for Firefox which includes a large suite of tools to test numerous aspects of a website for accessibility by those with disabilities and also includes testing for text, scripting, styles and much more.
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Cynthia Says.
A HiSoftware product that allows you to enter a web site URL into the site and get a report on how it complies with Section 508 and WCAG-Priority 1, 2 and 3.
Contrast Analyser.
We all know how difficult it can be to choose which colors we want to use with our websites especially when we need to make sure they work together when it comes to readability. Colour Contrast Analyser will let you know the difference between two colors and it can also be set to help you determine if people with visual impairments, such as color blindness, will be able to read it.
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Special thanks to SitePoint Australia for providing some of the above resources.
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