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Indian techie does his bit for
knowledge sharing
An Indian techie is contributing to the
knowledge-sharing platform with his publications on the theme of
information and communication technology for development, or ICT4D,
through the Internet. Ravi Gupta, 36, a civil engineering alumnus of IIT
Kanpur, has launched four specialist magazines unique in their slot
globally.
Indian firm
takes aim at instant messaging market
Online chatting in
cyberspace is a hugely popular form of communication, especially among
the young, and an Indian firm has major ambitions in this sector by
cashing in on mobile instant messaging (IM). Geodesic Information
Systems Limited has just released...
Virtual PC
2007 out of India Center
The Microsoft India Development Center
(MIDC) has developed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, which allows multiple
Microsoft operating systems to run at the same time on the same
computer. The company said that a 20-member team developed Microsoft
Virtual PC 2007, which is...
Singapore company opts for
Kerala IT firm solution
SunTec, a Kerala-based IT company,
Monday announced that its billing solution - Transaction Billing
Management System-Financial (TBMS-F) - has been selected by DBS Bank,
one of the largest financial services companies in South-east
Asia.Singapore-based DBS will deploy SunTec's flagship product TBMS-F to
competitively...
Tagore's idyll
set to turn into IT hub
Imagine an IT park with the best global brands keeping
company with modern healthcare, a golf course, a cluster
of non-polluting industries, a hotel and a quaint residency.
All on the fringes of West Bengal's Santiniketan...
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03.26.07
SEO & Accessibility Prevent Lawsuits,
Increase Visibility
 By Mike Banks Valentine
The WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C), in May 0f 1999, issued
Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines, which outlined methods of making
web content easily accessible to the visually and physically
impaired. In those guidelines the W3C stated plainly,
"Provide content that, when presented to the user,
conveys essentially the same function or purpose as auditory
or visual content."
Well, one purpose is to communicate your site content to
blind search engine spiders, which can't hear auditory content
either. If only we would pay attention to the W3C, the web
would be fully accessible to all and completely search engine
friendly. Hindsight and attention to historical web developments
might serve to make us aware that SEO and accessibility
are interwoven. Yes, SEO, as we'll discuss a bit more below.
But first, let's look a bit closer at the W3C guidelines
on accessibility.
Those guidelines recommend that web developers
"Use features that enable activation of page elements
via a variety of input devices."
The idea is to allow those using assistive devices, or
those with javascript disabled to navigate a web page easily
and without the need of a mouse, using alternate methods
to move through and activate links on the page. When using
text only readers, web-enabled cell phones and other small
screen devices it's not always possible to easily access
and activate web page content.
There have been a few high-profile cases which should have
served as wake-up calls for accessibility to online business.
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"In 1999, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
sued America Online, claiming it discriminated against the
blind because its system is not accessible to them. The
federation later dropped the lawsuit when AOL agreed to
make its software compatible with devices designed for visually
impaired users."
The above quote appeared in a 2002
CNet News story by Declan McCullough about another lawsuit
against Southwest Airlines was filed and U.S. District Judge
Patricia Seitz ruled that the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces, such as restaurants
and movie theaters, and not to the Internet."
That CNet story was written after a law suit was filed
against Southwest Airlines because the Southwest.com web
site was not accessible to visually challenged web surfers
using "screen reader" technology to browse the
web. The story was titled "Disabilities Act Doesn't
Cover Web"
OK, now lets jump forward another year to 2003, when attention
was focused on Search Engine Optimization when Brandon Olejniczak
wrote an article for Alistapart (ALA) titled "Using
XHTML/CSS for an Effective SEO Campaign" and discussed
the value of coding to current web standards to lighten page
code and remove excessive javascript from web pages, thus
improving search engine friendliness of web sites.
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