A mixed bag of sites for the GAWDS site of the month. this time around.
Wrexham Science Festival : http://www.wrexhamsf.com/
Validation of home page: passed xhtml 1.1
Automated accessibility report: failed
Though this appears to relate to a skip link, so maybe incorrect.
The site makes extensive use of tabindex which can be diificult to maintain, and may cause some problems.
When tabbing through a page the lack of a:active and a:focus makes it difficult to discern where you are on the page.
They have used a hidden class, which utilises display:none;. This means they cannot be accessed! so their skip links become unusable.
The pages accomodate text resizing quite well.
Overall a nice looking site.
ProShare Student Investor : http://www.studentinvestor.proshare.org/prelogon.php
Validation of home page: failed
Automated accessibility report: failed
This is due to some deprecated mark-up.
Good use of skip navigation links, though it needs rechecking in IE as the back link is not very readable because of where you jump to.
The page accomodates text resizing quite well.
It is difficult to understand what the links in the image are when tabbing through the page, it would be better if these links were also listed separately on the page.
The ugly space at the bottom of the page made me wonder what was supposed to be there!
Treasures of the Battye Library : http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/treasures/
Validation of home page: passed
Automated accessibility report: passed
Again the tabbing needs to be looked at, as it is difficult to see where you are on the page.
The site accomodates text resizing quite well.
Overall, a nice looking and well presented site.
Menzies Chartered Accountants : http://www.menzies.co.uk/
Validation of home page: failed
Automated accessibility report: failed
I almost laughed at this site! Try resizing the text in IE and you might understand why.
No skip links for the menu, and again nigh on impossible to tell where you are when tbbing through the page.
However a good point on the navigation is that you don’t have to tab through the sub menus.
I don’t find the site visually appealing, but it is certainly attractive to the audience they are looking for.
Their Reading Futures : http://www.theirreadingfutures.org.uk/
Validation of home page: failed
Automated accessibility report: failed
But these are minor errors and can be easily corrected.
The site resizes well in IE.
This site is exceptional in its use of colour for the design, a little more thought needs to go into highlighting links when you tab through the page.
I was disappointed to see that the search box didn’t resize in IE, an oversight which I am sure they will correct at a later stage.
I was certainly torn this time as to which site to vote for, but in the end I went for Their Reading Futures.