Accessible web design rocks. Just been at the @media2005 conference discussing Web Standards and Accessible Web design.
This is a reasonably new field, so virtually all the stars were there - oh, you should have seen us swooning.
Briefly, Accessible web design is the design of sites/pages so that they work properly in all modern web browsers as well as in as much assistive technology - such as screen readers - as possible.
This ensures that they are available (accessible - geddit?) to all users, no whatter what their browser (ever used a Mac, or a browser that isn't Internet Explorer and found that the site you wanted to visit didn't work at all, or wouldn't even let you in?) or their ability to use normal browsers, keyboards, mice etc.
Web standards help achieve this by using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to keep the page content and styling instructions separate. Try this: on the home page of chorlton.web choose the View Source command (in the View menu); notice that you can actually read the code and, without too much difficulty, see which bits are content and which aren't. Now try most 'big' web sites and do the same - chances are you'll see a huge mess of code with no (or very little) actual content.
Sorry if this has made you glaze over, but it's what makes me passionate (ok, one of the things...) and it's my blog (author sticks tongue out).
We need an accessible web authors' forum in manchester; anyone up for it (it's going ahead anyway...).
Have I missed anything in chorlton over the last couple of days?
Also took advantage of being in the Big L by visiting the Tate Modern and cracking in The Winters Tale at the Globe Theatre - recreation of Shakespearian theatre: absolutely magnificent, my dear Malvolio!
later
mark