Blind VI's New Look & Appeal + Updates!
This is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over due and I apologize.
For the 5 year anniversary, I decided to give Blind VI a much needed make over and do sprucing up.
Blind VI no longer has "A Place for the Blind & Visually Impaired" as its slogan/subtitle. Since 2007, Blind VI has become more sighted friendly. With interactive tools on The Braille Suite & White Cane Project, I've decided to change the slogan. New Slogan: not just a place for the blind and visually impaired. If anyone can think of a more catchier subtitle/slogan please contact me.
Got rid of the intro paragraph on the start page. It'll have a About Blind VI page all on its own.
Got rid of the chat/boards programs. No one uses them so why keep them?
Twitter & Facebook Fan Page - see the previous journal entry for more info.
Nav bar now has drop down menus! And Jaws takes real well to them too! And they open in and out of frames (depending on the link you choose.). This makes the nav bar (and website as a whole) look cleaner, nicer and more professional looking. 3 Catagories Sections, Features & Linked Websites (same format as you see on the main page.). And yes all 3 linked websites have drop down menus on the nav bar. Real easy to create and install.
Main Page Restructure
Kept the date/time/copyright scripts. If anything they got updated sometime last year. What you see catagorized in the nav bar section is what you'll see in the main page. This'll be easier to remember where things are and to get to quickly. Same sections: Sections, Features & Linked Websites.
List refreshes for Games & Website pages. Organizations is next after I get the CSS embed rels up on the entire website. The only refresh you see in Organizations is I removed International sections.
Organizations's Schools for the Blind & Guide Dog Schools both have same format as Braille/Large Print/Audio book sections.
Due to lack of interest Groups & Communities has been removed. The other reason is MSN Groups closed down and most of the Yahoo links don't work.
Horizontal Nav Strip: Lots of cleanup. Because I changed the main window's name to main.html, I had to re-do the nav strip. This'll take some time but it's worth the wait. The Horizontial strip in pages is for those who don't like frames.
Frameset: Blind VI & Linked Websites all have the same frame set values.
CSS Rel Embed: This has been a friggin time saver! CSS embeds can change the outlook for a entire section (or in this case the entire Blind VI landscape which has close to 90 html pages.) in seconds and not days.
Images on certain parts of Blind VI that wouldn't have them for sighted appeal. All linked websites have a image on the nav bar and a image on their main page. Blind VI only has 1 image and thats the site logo on the nav bar.
Bookmarks & Refer has been disabled until further notice. I'd like to have each website of Blind VI have their own B&R page. Just like the site map idea (it worked for that so I'm assuming it'll work for the B&R.). Each site will have it's own set of java bookmark and make page to default home page links. Text & Image links to promote each section on their own home page/websites/blogs/profiles - anywhere where HTML is allowed.
Polls have been removed from Linked Website pages. The only poll you'll see is on Blind VI (not Braille Suite, White Cane Project or Access Tech.)
New linked website coming soon! In honor of Bill Heisler! We were in discussions on getting a guide dog website up on Blind VI. I mean why not? It's apart of my blindness resource book. I had most of the information. Site Editor Fran is slowly helping (god bless her, she's got PHD Program & work and is able to help me on this.) me edit pages that need editing. When Bill was alive we talked about this as a potential idea. Due to his dialysis schedule draining him I chose to put this project on hold. But I slowly had collected research while waiting. Unfortunately Bill passed away in January and I wanted to further show him my apprication. Both he and Fran are guide dog users. She owns a lab and he owned one or two German Shepherds and wanted to get his 3rd Shep after his transplant was complete and able to take care of both himself and the dog. He always supported me on this idea. And I'm glad we've got this section for him. Sections include articles on many different topics, image gallery, article downloads and much more. So be on the look out for a activation date for Guiding Paws (Guiding Paws is the name of the linked website.) coming soon!
Wow, like I said alot of restructuring and alot of labor to get this site up to date. 5 years is a long time and I felt this was much needed.
For the 5 year anniversary, I decided to give Blind VI a much needed make over and do sprucing up.
Blind VI no longer has "A Place for the Blind & Visually Impaired" as its slogan/subtitle. Since 2007, Blind VI has become more sighted friendly. With interactive tools on The Braille Suite & White Cane Project, I've decided to change the slogan. New Slogan: not just a place for the blind and visually impaired. If anyone can think of a more catchier subtitle/slogan please contact me.
Got rid of the intro paragraph on the start page. It'll have a About Blind VI page all on its own.
Got rid of the chat/boards programs. No one uses them so why keep them?
Twitter & Facebook Fan Page - see the previous journal entry for more info.
Nav bar now has drop down menus! And Jaws takes real well to them too! And they open in and out of frames (depending on the link you choose.). This makes the nav bar (and website as a whole) look cleaner, nicer and more professional looking. 3 Catagories Sections, Features & Linked Websites (same format as you see on the main page.). And yes all 3 linked websites have drop down menus on the nav bar. Real easy to create and install.
Main Page Restructure
Kept the date/time/copyright scripts. If anything they got updated sometime last year. What you see catagorized in the nav bar section is what you'll see in the main page. This'll be easier to remember where things are and to get to quickly. Same sections: Sections, Features & Linked Websites.
List refreshes for Games & Website pages. Organizations is next after I get the CSS embed rels up on the entire website. The only refresh you see in Organizations is I removed International sections.
Organizations's Schools for the Blind & Guide Dog Schools both have same format as Braille/Large Print/Audio book sections.
Due to lack of interest Groups & Communities has been removed. The other reason is MSN Groups closed down and most of the Yahoo links don't work.
Horizontal Nav Strip: Lots of cleanup. Because I changed the main window's name to main.html, I had to re-do the nav strip. This'll take some time but it's worth the wait. The Horizontial strip in pages is for those who don't like frames.
Frameset: Blind VI & Linked Websites all have the same frame set values.
CSS Rel Embed: This has been a friggin time saver! CSS embeds can change the outlook for a entire section (or in this case the entire Blind VI landscape which has close to 90 html pages.) in seconds and not days.
Images on certain parts of Blind VI that wouldn't have them for sighted appeal. All linked websites have a image on the nav bar and a image on their main page. Blind VI only has 1 image and thats the site logo on the nav bar.
Bookmarks & Refer has been disabled until further notice. I'd like to have each website of Blind VI have their own B&R page. Just like the site map idea (it worked for that so I'm assuming it'll work for the B&R.). Each site will have it's own set of java bookmark and make page to default home page links. Text & Image links to promote each section on their own home page/websites/blogs/profiles - anywhere where HTML is allowed.
Polls have been removed from Linked Website pages. The only poll you'll see is on Blind VI (not Braille Suite, White Cane Project or Access Tech.)
New linked website coming soon! In honor of Bill Heisler! We were in discussions on getting a guide dog website up on Blind VI. I mean why not? It's apart of my blindness resource book. I had most of the information. Site Editor Fran is slowly helping (god bless her, she's got PHD Program & work and is able to help me on this.) me edit pages that need editing. When Bill was alive we talked about this as a potential idea. Due to his dialysis schedule draining him I chose to put this project on hold. But I slowly had collected research while waiting. Unfortunately Bill passed away in January and I wanted to further show him my apprication. Both he and Fran are guide dog users. She owns a lab and he owned one or two German Shepherds and wanted to get his 3rd Shep after his transplant was complete and able to take care of both himself and the dog. He always supported me on this idea. And I'm glad we've got this section for him. Sections include articles on many different topics, image gallery, article downloads and much more. So be on the look out for a activation date for Guiding Paws (Guiding Paws is the name of the linked website.) coming soon!
Wow, like I said alot of restructuring and alot of labor to get this site up to date. 5 years is a long time and I felt this was much needed.