…but he’s posted up such a good overview on his own blog that I’ll just point everyone over there: Accessible forms and more.

Nick explains his background as such:

Before I started building web sites for a living, I was a policy officer with the then Ministry of Fair Trading and I spent a lot of time working with legislation.

The first time I read that sentence, I thought it said “I was a police officer”… I was trying to imagine Nick in uniform. Not an image that really fits!

That aside, Nick’s presentation should be great, I’m really looking forward to it. Just a reminder, the details are:

Web Standards Group Meeting, Perth
Thursday August 31, 2006 – from 6pm
Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley Tavern (Building 12)
Cover charge of $4 for nibblies and audio transcription

Please RSVP to perth@webstandardsgroup.org if you’re planning to come along.

Posted from kay lives here

Nick Cowie on Accessible Forms

The date will be the 31st of August and the venue will once again be the ECU tavern at Mt Lawley.

Full details are available on the Web Standards Group web site. If you are planning on attending please email your intention to perth@webstandardsgroup.org so we know how many people to arrange nibblies for.

The last two Perth meetings have been very informative AND a lot of fun – hope to see you there!

Posted from kay lives here

Web Standards Group Perth – August meeting

The event will be held once more at Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, in the tavern. Full details are available, as always, on the Web Standards Group site, but to summarise the first presentation will be kicking off at around 6.30pm and to cover catering costs there will be a $4 charge.

This month, we have two local speakers.

Kara O’Halloran, from Eduka, will present The Joy and Terror of Implementing Web Standards, an account of her experiences in guiding Eduka’s flagship CMS product to produce standards-compliant code. From what I’ve heard so far, the terror probably outweighed the joy (at least to start with), but lots was learnt along the way and Kara will be passing on some tips for those of us in similar situations.

Fellow WSG organiser Vicki Berry will then present excerpts from her TODCON 8 presentations. Vicki was a speaker last month at this conference in Orlando, Florida, and from all reports her sessions were very well received. We’re lucky to have international-level talent right here at home! Flickr certainly shows a good time was had by all (yes, I’m insanely jealous, Vicki!).

If you’re likely to come along, please drop us a line – perth@webstandardsgroup.org so we know how many to cater for.

Posted from kay lives here

Perth Web Standards Group – June meeting

I’m really thrilled with how well they turned out, considering it was our first attempt. The speakers were great and while there’s some things we will do differently next time, on the whole the night was a success.

I’ll post some notes on the recording and transcribing process later, but for now just check out the content:

Accessible Business Online – Alex Graham
A brief introduction to accessibility and what it means to web developers and their clients in Australia

<button>: The Forgotten Element – Nick Cowie
The oft-forgotten button element and its role in accessible, cross-browser, stylish forms. I really urge everyone to check the examples out on this one, most people I’ve spoken to (myself included) either don’t even know the button element exists, or have no idea how cool it is.

These podcasts are also available from the WSG site, along with a whole stack of other cool presentation recordings.

We’re trying to keep Perth WSG meetings to a set format – two shorter presentations for each meeting, one on a business-related topic and one on a more technical aspect of web standards. There’s another meeting planned for mid-May. I will be posting details here as soon as the venue is confirmed so stay tuned for more exciting announcements…

Posted from kay lives here

WSG Perth podcasts now online

So what’s on the agenda? Firstly, Alexandra Graham from Cadmium will be presenting “Accessible Business Online” – relating some of her experiences building a web development business based on accessibility. Alex has received recognition for her work, including a “Site of the Month” award from GAWDS (Guild of Accessible Web Designers), so she really knows what she’s talking about. I’ve been hounding Alex to present for the Perth WSG for quite so time so I’m really looking forward to her session.

Keeping to our aim of having a business-related presentation and a technical presentation at each meeting, the second presentation will be Nick Cowie’s “<button>: The Forgotten Element”. Nick has spent some time (he would probably call it a really long time) researching accessible forms. In his “adventures” he re-discovered the button element, a useful form element that many web developers seem to be unaware of. Nick will be giving the low down on what this element can do to help build stylish and accessible forms, including of course cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility.

The meeting is being sponsored by Edith Cowan University’s School of Communications and Multimedia, who are providing us with a venue and nibblies. Many thanks are due to Arshad Omari and Joe Luca, and especially to Harry Leith who helped organise everything.

Event details

See the Web Standards Group web site for official details. If anything changes this is where it will be posted.

For those who’d like a summary, it’s at the tavern of ECU’s Mt Lawley campus (Building 12) on Thursday the 30th of March, 2006. Drinks and networking from 6pm. Presentations between 6.30pm and 7.30pm, then more drinks and networking for those who feel like sticking around and talking shop with like-minded web-heads.

Venue and parking information

Edith Cowan has downloadable campus maps (in PDF format) and also a quite impressive interactive campus map.

RSVP

If you’re thinking of coming along, please let Vicki and I know by emailing perth@webstandardsgroup.org. Hope to see you there!

Posted from kay lives here

March Web Standards Group Meeting, Perth