Blog

Off-Site Services is an award-winning web development and consulting firm providing strategic services to our partners

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements for web sites

Jun 29th, 2017 by Max Tokman

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements for web sites were supposed to take effect in 2018, but thanks to a recent Florida ruling covered in our earlier post they are now for all intents and purposes in effect.
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Florida court imposes ADA requirement on Winn-Dixie's retail web site

Jun 29th, 2017 by Max Tokman

ADA requirements for consumer-facing websites are supposed to go into effect in 2018, but some are starting early.  Winn-Dixie built their website in 2015 and has now earmarked quarter of a million dollars to make it ADA compliant, based on recent court ruling.

Link - https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-holds-winn-dixie-supermarkets-website-violates-ada/

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[Few] shades of outsourcing or how to spot fraud before it ruins your day

Jun 6th, 2017 by Max Tokman

Same as anyone remotely involved with IT, I get bombarded with unending streams of daily emails, calls, and feeds promising superior offshoring, nearshoring and all other kinds of remote technical help for fraction of what it should cost.  Being a polite person, I occasionally respond to these sales pitches and over the years have come to gauge fairly well the background of these companies just from the way their sales pitch is crafted.

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Color Check tool for validating ADA readability compliance

May 31st, 2017 by Max Tokman

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is slated to become a legal requirement for websites selling goods or services directly to the public starting in 2018.  There are already plenty of good resources for identifying code-based compliance, but image compliance is a trickier matter.  As a quick solution, we put together a Color Check tool that in two clicks allows you to select foreground and background colors and performs contrast validation on selected colors in accordance with ADA requirements.

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Automated website testing in Firefox with Selenium IDE plugin

Mar 29th, 2016 by Max Tokman

Introduction

User experience testing is a crucial element of web quality assurance.   One UX testing solution we use internally is a Selenium IDE plugin for Firefox, which allows you to record interactions with multiple elements and multiple web pages, organize recorded tests into sets (suites) and save them for future use.  Below is a screenshot showing Selenium IDE popup that appears in Firefox after plugin is installed and activated, with test cases organized on the left, playback and recording controls on the top, actions being recorded in the main content area on the left and

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Testing website's new server with URL prior to launch / transfer - on Mac and PC

Mar 24th, 2016 by Max Tokman

This instruction will be useful for anyone who has to test new website being build, or website being transferred to new server, prior to DNS change when all you have is a new website's IP address.  You can make changes on your local machine to associate web address (URL) with known IP address and test how the website performs when called via that URL.  Once local settings are changed, the website is ready to be tested in web browser on your local machine with its actual URL.

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Skip security updates and your website just might end up selling Viagra

Mar 8th, 2016 by Max Tokman

This is what happens when Drupal or WordPress security updates are ignored - nothing.  Yet again, maybe your website gets hacked, malicious code is inserted into page templates, and next thing you know, you’re in the business of selling Motilium, as happened recently on an actual website we had to fix.

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RIP Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10

Jan 8th, 2016 by Max Tokman

On January 12, 2016 Microsoft is switching off life support for older versions of Internet Explorer, with only IE11 remaining officially supported. This should help them consolidate the approximately 40% of their market share currently spread across multiple versions of IE, and
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Weekend read: Foundation vs. Bootstrap

Sep 25th, 2015 by Max Tokman

The answer to question "What is better, Bootstrap or Foundation" is that it depends. Here are a few pointers to make this decision a little easier to make.
 

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New Firefox 41 for Mac OS thinks your video card sucks

Sep 23rd, 2015 by Max Tokman

Released earlier this week, Firefox 41 uses different algorithm for processing DIV rotations via graphics/video card.  That affects CSS “ transform” property by creating screen artifacts or freezing browser altogether.  Many an award winning website with fancy CSS animations will be humbled by this unexpected gift from Firefox until Mozilla releases a patch or part of the new browser functionality is rolled back to its earlier state.

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