Web Accessibility principles

I was going through my juniors work on Ruby on Rails. I was helping them to build some interesting web applications. And then the discussions lead to design, usability and accessibility of the application. As they don't have enough exposure on web applications, I quoted few articles and books to say UI is as important as functionality. Of which, I highlighted the "Ten Principles for Web Accessibility" from "Pragmatic Design & Accessible Web Sites" by Jeremy J. Sydik.

1. Avoid making assumptions about the the physical, mental, and sensory abilities of your users whenever possible.
2. Your users’ technologies are capable of sending and receiving text.
   That’s about all you’ll ever be able to assume.
3. Users’ time and technology belong to them, not to us. You should
   never take control of either without a really good reason.
4. Provide good text alternatives for any non-text content.
5. Use widely available technologies to reach your audience.
6. Use clear language to communicate your message.
7. Make your sites usable, searchable, and navigable.
8. Design your content for semantic meaning and maintain separation between content and presentation.
9. Progressively enhance your basic content by adding extra features. Allow it to degrade gracefully for users who can’t or don’t wish to use them.
10. As you encounter new web technologies, apply these same principles when making them accessible.
    

Link to Book:
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jsaccess/design-accessible-web-sites

Web Applications

Database is one of the key things for the web applications. The flow of web application can be simply put into the following broad steps:

• User makes request from Browser/Client
• The "http" request carries this to Server (web/app server)
• The web server parts the request with the help of CGI/FCGI...
• CGI/FCGI gives the control to application
• Application takes the rest of game, which include
• Identifying the actions/method
• Actions/Methods would do the logic
• Contacts the database
• Fetches the data and pushes to front (with appropriate html's...)
• The server would redirect the same to client side.
• The user gets the content he asked for.

That would give good picture on how the web application work.
The above points give us information on what are the components that are required and each of them will be covered in the posts coming upon!

Web Application resources required Ruby vs Java

David Heinemeier Hansson says,

"Once you've tried developing a substantial application in Java or PHP or C# or whatever, the difference in Rails will be readily apparent. You gotta feel the hurt before you can appreciate the cure."

Who is David Heinemeier Hansson? David is...
What else he said about Ruby on Rails? Interview with David...
How popular he is? Well he ranked ...