Target to pay out $6M and have quarterly/annual accessibility tests

Found via Glenda the Good, this marks a huge milestone in moving from infrequently enforced laws regarding government sites to making sites and web applications of private entities accessible to the general public.

"As part of the settlement, Target will establish a $6 million fund from which members of the California settlement class can make claims. In addition, the National Federation of the Blind will certify the Target Web site through its Nonvisual Accessibility Web Certification program once agreed upon improvements are completed in early 2009. Target and NFB have agreed to a three-year relationship during which NFB will perform accessibility testing of the Target Web site. For more information about the terms of the settlement, please visit www.nfbtargetlawsuit.com."

The $6,000,000 fund doled out to those who file claims will draw attention to this, but to me the (comparatively) rapid compliance and ongoing tests make this worthwhile. Target won't just throw money at the issue, but will make its site accessible to those using assistive technologies, and maintain that for at least three years following!

Zend DevZone book review

Cal Evans of Zend just posted a shining review of Advanced Ajax!

It’s not often that I review a book that is a year old for several reasons. The main reason is that technology changes so fast. In this day and age a book 12 months old usually contains out dated information. As with any good rule, there are exemptions, this book is one of them.

Having said that let me lay out a warning, “Advanced Ajax” means what it says, it is an advanced book. If you are a web designer who has just completed “Learn JavaScript in One Week” then you do not want to buy this book. Go play with the other crayons and come back when you’ve got a few years experience under your belt. This book is for those developers that already know what a pain it is to develop using JavaScript and love it anyhow. If you’ve already busted one flat-screen by banging your head on it because “the code should work!” then you are ready for this book.

Read the rest of the review.

Books to give away during my ZendCon08 talk!

In order to bribe more people to attend my talk at ZendCon08, my publisher has sent me three copies of my book to give away! I haven't quite figured out how to dole them out yet, or even have any idea how many people will attend the talk and want a copy, but I'll figure something out.

I think for the talk, I'll use a modified S5 theme I have in-progress using Safari's new CSS transforms and animation support for transitions. I'll post some examples of that as I make it ready for the talk, since I can't really post the content of my talk until I get the go-ahead from those who give it at IBM. The talk centers around looking at source code from work, and I'd rather not upset IBM's Higher Powers by exposing even part of the product without explicit permission...