Hello All, We are currently in the midst of redesigning our sites in XHTML/CSS and so far no tables. We are doing this for two reasons. First, we felt that as a national institution we need to be able to get our information and collection out to the world no matter where they are or what system they are using. Secondly, we know that at some point the Canadian Government will be coming out with guidelines and rules for accessibility in government and crown corporation websites and we felt that getting in ahead of time was the best move. We should be launching sometime near the end of February, so stay tuned.
For those thinking of doing the switch to a standards based layout, not only can you comply with 508 (U.S. Government regulations) but will have a faster site and one that is much easier and cheaper to maintain. Make sure you find a design company that is up to date with the latest information about standards based design, even a site written in XHTML/CSS can be a bad one if the designers don't know how to implement such technology. Standard based design is more than just writing a site using a style sheet and coding in XHTML. It is about creating a site that is coded efficiently, accessible, created so that the site can be viewed using any technology (whether that be Windows, Mac, Palm Pilots, etc.) and that the code is semantically correct (i.e. a paragraph is a paragraph, a table is for tabular data, a list is used to list things and so on). If you want other books to read about this (aside from 'Designing With Web Standards") try "Building Accessible Websites" by Joe Clark, "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, and "Web Design on a Shoestring" by Carrie Bickner. There are also lots of websites out there that you may want to visit. From this small list you can find many, many more. http://www.webstandards.org/ http://www.zeldman.com/ http://www.mezzoblue.com/ http://www.simplebits.com/ http://tantek.com/log/ http://www.stopdesign.com/ http://www.webdesignpractices.com/index.html These should get anyone started on the road to a standards based website. Andrew Macdonald New Media Officer / Agent des nouveaux médias Canada Aviation Museum / Musée de l'aviation du Canada Phone / Téléphone : (613) 998-5689 Fax / Télécopie : (613) 990-3655 Website: www.aviation.technomuses.ca Email: amacdon...@technomuses.ca "Erik Christman" <e...@nixonlibrary.org> 07/01/2004 12:47 PM Please respond to mcn-l To: mcn-l@mcn.edu cc: Subject: Re: Web standards and museum sites For all interested, Source code will contain the following at the very top of the page showing what version of XHTML or HTML: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">Also in the source code this will be below the "title tag" showing that the page is using a style sheet, and if need be how to get it.<style type="text/css" media="screen">@import "/c/ala.css";</style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="/c/print.css" />_________________ Erik W. Christman Exhibition Designer The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd. Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886 (714) 993-5075 ext.243 fax (714) 528-0544 email: e...@nixonlibrary.org website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "quigley" <squi...@panix.com> To: <mcn-l@mcn.edu> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:18 PM Subject: Re: Web standards and museum sites Erik, Being ignorant, how would I recognize an 'XHTML/CSS' website? Suzanne Quigley Head Registrar, Collections & Exhibitions Whitney Museum of American Art 945 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10021 v: 212 570 7795 f: 212 570 7784 E: suzanne_quig...@whitney.org RARIN http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html OnConract http://www.panix.com/~squigle/OnContract/menu.html On Jan 6, 2004, at 8:59 PM, Erik Christman wrote: > Dana > > XHTML is the next logical step to XML,, read Mr. Zeldman's book > twice,, hit his site once a week. > CSS is also a good way of separating your content from your design,, > so redesigns are not so painful. > Haven't seen any good examples of XHTML/CSS museum sites to speak of... > > __________________ > Erik W. Christman > Exhibition Designer > The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace > 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd. > Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886 > (714) 993-5075 ext.243 > fax (714) 528-0544 > email: > e...@nixonlibrary.org > website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: e...@nixonlibrary.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-113561...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: amacdon...@technomuses.ca To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-113561...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com