Syllabus, cecs 470

Catalog description: Prerequisite CECS 277. Corequisite/Prerequisite CECS 323, ENGR 350. Introduction to contemporary practice in World-Wide Web development. Motivation and principles of accessibility for all users, including those with a wide range of physical disabilities. Web architecture, standards, and programming, emphasizing XML, XML-based languages and style sheets, and XML transformations. Visual design principles and information architecture. Client- and server-side programming and protocols. Development for non-traditional user agents including adaptive technologies and mobile devices. (Lecture 2 hours, laboratory 3 hours.) Letter grade only (A-F).

Instructor

Tom Jewett, Full-Time Lecturer, office ECS room 620, phone 51554, email jewett@csulb.edu. Mr. Jewett has taught Web and user interface design since the Web was "born" in 1992; he is Web accessibility project lead for the California State University Accessible Technology Initiative, and also has a commercial web/database development and consulting business.

For instructor schedules and additional information, please see my Department faculty listing.

If you send me email, please include the course number and your real name in the subject line. Also be sure that your email forwarding address on Beachboard is the one you actually read.

Hybrid course format

Lecture and lab sessions will meet on Wednesday only. Please see the schedule for details.

You will be required to do independent reading in place of the "missing" lecture/lab meeting each week. Periodic quizzes will cover the lecture and reading material.

I will be available for office hours prior to the scheduled lecture times and by appointment. You are also welcome to discuss the course with me by email at any time.

Materials

Text (required): Web Accessibility, by Jim Thatcher et.al., FriendsOfEd publishers, 2006, ISBN 1-59059-638-2.
Online readings and resources listed in individual assignments.
Important: all pages on this course web site, including the schedule, assignments, and standards for grading, coding, ethics, and quizzes, are mandatory parts of the course syllabus. You must read them thoroughly to understand the requirements of the course.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, with CSS-friendly plug-in (see the coding standards page for details). Disks are available through the Microsoft academic license program.
IBM Home Page Reader (works with IE6 only). Disks are available for you to borrow from the Department office (ECS-552).
Firefox with web developer toolbar. In Firefox, open the add-ons page, and click "Install now" (it installs automatically). Then close and reopen Firefox to finish the installation.
Fangs text-reader simulation for Firefox. Install like the developer toolbar above, from Sourceforge.net.
Colour Contrast Analyser version 1.1. On the Vision Australia download page, click the first link under "Download," then unzip the file and install.
Dr. Wayne Dick's personal low vision stylesheet.
Cheap MP3-player headphones for use in the lab.

Attendance, adds, and drops:

Attendance is required—this includes the lab period. I will handle emergencies and exceptions according to University policy. If you want to add this class, you must attend the first class meeting. Please do not attempt to add the course (or enroll in it prior to the semester) if you have not completed the prerequisite courses. All students will need to show proof of prerequisite completion during the second week of class. I will normally honor drop requests where permitted by University policy.

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