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With apologies to anyone who’s already read this on my Webwatch e-mail list, I wanted to mention that beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8 is available. This is the product I work on at Microsoft so it is always nice when something I work on is available publicly.

 

I know blog readers sometimes try beta releases from different companies.  I wanted to give folks an alert about IE8 beta 1 should you opt to take it for a test spin.  We are still working through some issues with various screen readers, including JAWS, Window-Eyes and ZoomText.  Sso if you install the IE beta, please pay attention to the release notes.

 

The release notes talk about some key problems with the shipping versions of several products where web content will not be available and the IE menus will not speak.  There are two reg keys detailed in the release notes you can use to work around these issues but if you do not, IE will seem extremely broken.

 

The blog announcement talking about IE8 beta 1 is at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/internet-explorer-8-beta-1-for-developers-now-available.aspx

 

The release notes are at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949787

 

Although it isn’t mentioned in the blog post, IE8 beta 1 contains Microsoft’s initial support for Web ARIA.  If you are not familiar with ARIA, it is a way to make complex web applications more accessible and do things like assign roles we are familiar with such as trees, menus and more to HTML elements.  This is a very simplified example.  Personally I think ARIA holds a lot of potential to make the web more functional for screen reading users.  You can learn more at:

ARIA Best Practices – http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/

ARIA Working Draft – http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/

 

If you opt to try the IE8 beta and have feedback/bugs/issues please feel free to ping me.  We definitely want to know what doesn’t work for the ways you want to use IE.  We also have a blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/ie8-beta-feedback.aspx that details the other feedback mechanisms for the beta.

 

By the way, we still have an open test position to help us with accessibility testing across the product.  The link for more details on that position is at http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=EDC85083-8FD9-4E16-BE2B-1B736C30E3AC&start=1&interval=10&SortCol=DatePosted.  If that link doesn’t work for you use job code 186473 and search US jobs off of http;//Microsoft.com/careers.

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Just a short blog update to let folks know that Microsoft has started a new Accessibility Blog. Subscribe to it in your RSS reader of choice at http://blogs.msdn.com/accessibility/rss.xml.

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On January 16, 2008 my youngest brother Joel unexpectedly passed away. If accessibility in the web world means we have access to more information, then I guess it means we have access to more sadness because reading my baby brother’s obituary for myself has been part of the most profoundly sad experience of my life.

 

These words were read at Joel’s funeral and I share them here knowing that Joel is and always will be with us in spirit.

 

 

Joel,

 

Days and nights of our youth were filled with endless hours of play. In summer baseball, swimming, camping in the backyard and countless adventures to the store where fifty cents made us feel like millionaires. Spring and fall were witness to the weather’s change but the love of two boys growing and learning together remained the same. Football, Halloween candy hunts, roof top jumping to the leaves piled so high. Never mind that dad said to stop, it was an adventure that was waiting to be experienced.

 

In Your teenage years I marveled at your basketball prowess. So many championships, so much success for you.

 

As we grew our adventures changed. How exciting as two young people to have some pocket change and experience together the excitement of video games. Like all you put your mind to in life, you were never content to just play the newest game. You climbed the mountain and conquered each opportunity that was put before you.

 

My first job. My first bicycle. Bent handle bars, body over the hood of a car. How much more memorable the experience when you didn’t let me know about that parked car. The humor and laughter ring true even today. How much more memorable the experience than just two boys out for a bike ride. As the officials of your beloved basketball would say ,”no harm no foul.”

 

Like the two roads in Frost’s The Road less Travelled, our paths diverged at times. What a joy to have them connect again in Portland, The Rose City. You then a father and how wonderful to see the pride and joy you took in building a world for your angelic Jessica.

 

As adults it was back to the games of our youth. Baseball and cookouts in the backyard, adventures to Seattle to watch the Mariners. The joy of rediscovery of the brother of my youth.

 

Scientists tell us that in the universe for every action there’s an equal an opposite reaction. Some of that “book learning” of mine, I know. My heart hurts so much but I know it is only because the equal and opposite reaction is the joy you brought to so many in this world.

 

I love you my brother. I love the strength of conviction you showed in all you did. Your beliefs were those of your own and you stood strong for what you believed was right.

 

Father, brother, son, friend. Four words I know but these say so much and you lived up to all of them. You were and always will be Joel, a father to Jessica, a brother to myself and many others and a friend to so many more and most importantly a son to mom and dad.

 

Some brotherly advice too my dear Joel. Heaven’s your new home but please give God a break before you start telling him how to run the joint. I know you can do it better so go easy on the guy.

 

I love you my brother. Rest in peace.

 

Kelly

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I’m not a big television watcher but on occasion do enjoy an episode or two of some of the older classics. Typically that has come in the form of a DVD from Netflix or my cable television’s on demand service.

 

While both of these solutions do satisfy my need to watch the occasional show they are not without problems. In the case of Netflix, there’s the obvious that you need to have requested the DVD and it has to be sent to your house and such. As much as I enjoy Netflix, this hardly fits the bill when you’d like to kick back and enjoy an episode of some previous favorite show. We do all need that immediate gratification these days after all.

 

Cable television’s on-demand service is intended to fill this need for immediate entertainment. Great but I’ve not yet found a cable system with an accessible on-demand menu system.

 

I recently signed up for a beta of a service called Hulu that’s claim to potential fame is that it wants to make video available “when, where and how you want it.” So far I’ve been pleased with the service. Sign up was straight forward and a few days after indicating my interest, I received an e-mail and in a matter of minutes was watching some old TV classics.

 

Site accessibility isn’t perfect. There are many instances of missing alternative text that makes browsing with a screen reader more problematic. Still one can figure out where the untagged links lead and more or less use the service. Feedback on every page also makes prompting for improvements in this area a snap.

 

The video player used seems to be Flash technology. Buttons are missing labels so this is a bit of a challenge if you want to pause or otherwise control the video. Trial and error does help here though. The folks over at Adobe have a great Flash accessibility site that I’ve mentioned in feedback to Hulu so hopefully they’ll respond.

 

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Several years ago friends of mine had the creative idea of producing an audio Christmas card for family and friends. I had the privilege of serving as audio engineer for the project, as much as a day’s recording in a home computer room turned recording studio can be called a project. I’m sharing the music from that CD with permission and hope blog readers will enjoy the talents of these folks as much as I have over the years.

The music is a collection of holiday classics and original compositions by the then Rachael Robinson. Her daughter Sarah joins as vocalist on several tracks and Harv Robinson (rest in peace) has a stirring introduction to the original composition “You Shine,” a heartfelt ballad that speaks to those people who are special in our lives.

“Vision,” has long been a favorite of mine from Rachael’s library of music. The bouncy fun tune hits home at the frustration I think anyone who is blind feels from time to time when society doesn’t seem to see us as people first and defines us strictly by our lack of sight.

In “Too Much For Thirteen” Rachael captures the fear, pride and essence of homelessness from a child’s perspective. It is one of the most moving pieces of social commentary in any form I’ve ever heard.

The power and richness of Rachael’s vocal ability can be heard in the holiday classic “What Child Is This.” To my ears, her rendition is as compelling as the versions I hear on radio during the holiday season.

A total of nine tracks were recorded for the CD. Enjoy this holiday treat.

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Surfing with a screen reader can occasionally yield humorous browsing experiences. As anyone who does this knows, you are frequently exposed to names of objects that I suspect web designers do not expect anyone will ever actually read.

 

These challenging names are typically exposed in situations where alternative text has not been provided for graphical links and as the names for frames on web pages.

 

Today I was using a web site and ran across the below entries for an iframe and the link to an ad within that frame.

 

pinkSexyBlond_728x90x_low_salx_U996x_0607 frame

2007Creative/pinkSexyBlond_728x90x_low_salx_U996x_0607

pinkSexyBlond_728x90x_low_salx_U996x_0607 frame end

 

The really ironic thing here is that the link actually went to a web site providing financial advice and the web site where the ad was being shown was a news web site. How a pink sexy blond was involved is beyond me.

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I suppose because to some degree blogging has now reached the masses, at least those who have the time and desire to read blogs, this article qualifies as news. The basic point of the article is that bloggers are fighting electronically in various wars of words.

 

I have to ask if this is anything new? Anyone who’s been around the online world knows that the debates in the blogging community making news today have been going on since the first times folks could hide behind a keyboard and launch written assaults against whatever ticked them off that day. Sure the technology might have been different but these same kinds of arguments have been going on for the more than 20 years I’ve been involved with the online world.

 

I’m all for the availability of information and ideas that the web has allowed. Quality blogs represent a great new information source that I think we are still figuring out how to incorporate into the fabric of society. But junk is junk and the online world’s always been filled with a lot of it.

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Sitting here watching the Washington thermometer drop closer and closer to 40 degrees I’m struck by what a difference one can be experiencing in one week. I suppose with today’s ability to travel the fact is that you can experience what I’m talking about in the same day but last week was vacation and so my mind’s reflecting back a bit.

 

Last Thursday Aimee and I along with three of my brothers and their spouses were nearing the end of a week’s stay on Maui. Today I was trudging off to work in the rain and couldn’t get either one of my sisters or one of the brothers who was on vacation with me to take my phone call when I wanted to grouse about having to walk in the rain. <chuckle>

 

Last Thursday the day started with loads of family hanging out on a condo lanai with temperatures in the low 80’s. The day progressed to a morning spent at the beach, an afternoon where I went parasailing for the first time and the evening spent at what’s probably Maui’s best luau.

 

Today it was a walk to the bus in the rain, another typical day at the office and what felt like the first really cold day of fall. Washington isn’t nearly as cold as Wisconsin can be according to the thermometer but at times there’s a dampness to the air that chills you to the bone almost instantly even when the temperature’s not all that low. Hawaii’s sounding pretty good about now.

 

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Hawaii twice in the last four years. Aimee and I along with one brother and his spouse went back in 2004 and enjoyed Hawaii so much that we put together a larger group this time around.

 

Perhaps it is the fact that most of my life has been spent in climates that have four distinct seasons but both times I’ve been to Hawaii I’ve absolutely loved the weather on the islands. There’s something that triggers instant relaxation. Perhaps it is the gentle ocean breezes, the constant sun, the carefree nature of swimming and floating in the ocean and the general spirit of just go with the flow that permeates life in Hawaii.

 

This time around I tried parasailing. If you’ve never experienced this, it is something to try. You start by sitting on the deck of a boat, seated in a harness that holds you to a parachute. As the boat accelerates you are lifted into the air and then have what’s pretty close to what it must feel like to float in the air. I had suspected the feeling would be like a bumpy carnival ride but it was nothing like that at all.

 

The ride I took went to an elevation of 800 feet but there was really little sensation of climbing or coming back to earth. In fact in general most of what you felt was just a gentle floating around. Even being held by a harness that was just some straps around your lower body was not at all uncomfortable.

 

Landing when parasailing felt a lot like getting off of a chair lift on the ski slope. Someone counted down 3-2-1 and you simply stood up and you were back on the boat.

 

I think the most interesting thing for me about parasailing was the ability to hear sound from all around. I’ve been up in a hot air balloon once and the audio sensation was somewhat similar but for the fact that this time I was floating over the Pacific ocean so there wasn’t as much to hear. Still I always find it interesting to hear the sounds of the world below me as I am above the different things you can hear.

 

I’m by no means an expert but as I say I’ve now been to Hawaii twice and have some idea of what’s worth doing and such on a visit. Hopefully I’ll get inspired to write a bit more about my experiences. It is almost November here and Washington winters can be quite dreary so I’ll probably need a few more Hawaiian recollection sessions over the next few weeks.

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Seattle’s in yet another endless discussion around what the area’s transit future will be. As the fall election gets closer, there’s another transit package being offered to voters to try and resolve the area’s persistent transit congestion.

 

Then there’s Portland. As this column illustrates, Seattle has a long way to go before it catches up to what Portland’s already doing with respect to public transit.

 

I’ve mentioned Portland’s MAX light rail system a few times here but I’m once again reminded how different the attitudes are around transit between Portland and Seattle. Seattle is such a car culture and in the almost seven years I’ve lived here I’ve not seen much change in that regard.

 

I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for my job, I’d not live in Seattle because of the lack of progress on resolving the transit problems here.

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At some point enough should be enough. Now I read that they want to bring corporate sponsorship to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. It makes me wonder at times if we’ve lost our way to the point that anything’s for sale and if life’s going to turn into one big commercial.

 

Kevin Bartram, a sponsorship consultant hired by the bridge’s overseers, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, said any sponsorship would be tastefully done.

 

“It will be appropriate and understated,” Mr. Bartram said. “But visible.”

 

There’s always a “but” to these kinds of deals. Truth be told, the Golden Gate Bridge doesn’t do much for me. I’ve walked on the bridge several times because I lived relatively close to it when I made my home in San Francisco. Walking on the bridge the most I experienced was a bit of shaking as cars whizzed by, and obviously a lot of wind given the size of open water the bridge covers.

 

As a walking destination it wasn’t overly interesting but enough folks that were around commented on how interesting the view is that I can guess anything that messes with it would not be good.

 

 

Do we really need more food stands, visitor centers or anything else that increases the commercialism of yet another destination? We need to find ways to fund our public life without selling our world.

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