I’m trying to convince Tim that he needs to invest in some CSS wizardry from Ecru’s designer.

Quite frankly, who cares… it’s a distinction that doesn’t have to be made, the focus is really on natural keyword analysis, and if your audience decide that they want to buy services from a website designer then who is to say that they are using the wrong words?  And furthermore, if they want to drop the word “site” and just say web design then I say go ahead - be my guest!

They provide a wide range of IT support services to clients in London, throughout the UK and worldwide.  It’s the proximity of their engineers to companies in London that makes them so desirable as a service provider.  That and their incredible responsiveness.

 Aside from providing London IT support, they provide IT consultancy and managed services for SME’s (small and medium-sized enterprises).

I attended a brilliant lecture by Barry once before, so I kind of knew what to expect.  He’s a very inspiring teacher who does a lot of work with schools encouraging people to do challenging activities outdoors, instead of sitting inside all day.  He’s really into leadership skills, and is very willing to share his experience with you, without being pushy.

The course I attended involved turning up in a couple of minivans at about 8 o’clock on Saturday night in the middle of nowhere, in pitch darkness, unloading our gear at the base station, packing all our rucksacks in preparation for a “scenario”, and then walking out into the pitch black night.

I’d spent a long time preparing for the night, and my preparations turned out to have been just right.  There were a few garments I ended up not needing, including my Norwegian Army winter weather top.  I was absolutely roasting for the whole time, despite the windchill and near zero temperatures.

One of the shops I visited to get some of my gear was the Army and Navy store in Westcliff on Sea.  I sidled into the shop hoping to browse secretly, but one of the members of staff intercepted me immediately.  I said I was going for an overnight survival exercise and he said “we’ve got everything you need”.  This turned out to be true.

We ended up marching 10km, and the emergency scenario we practiced in the middle was very challenging, with the wind blowing a gale.

I’m now planning on going again, but this time with the children, because it impressed on me how important it is to practice life saving and resuscitation.  Things I last thought about when I was in St John’s Ambulance, longer ago than I care to remember!

“We went away this weekend and stopped at a Coffee Primo at service stations on the way out and the way back.

On the way out my wife ordered a load of snacks and drinks and it took a lot of persistence to get all of the items she had ordered.  We sat and chatted about how efficient they are at Starbucks, where this almost never happens.

It was my turn to place our order on the way back and I was surprised that exactly the same thing happened, at a different branch of Cafe Primo.  I had to ask for every item on our receipt to be given to me.

After we had drunk our coffee, which was great by the way, we wondered why your system works the way it does, because our first experience was not a one-off.

Initially we thought that your staff are under the impression that if they can get away without giving part of an order to a client then they are saving money for the Café Primo.  Surely this can’t be company policy though, because you would lose more in brand reputation than you would gain in retained blueberry muffins.

So it seems more generous to assume that you use your clients to enable your staff to communicate with each other, from the cash till to the dispensing counter.

Call me crazy for coming up with an idea like this – and it really is just one of many possible solutions – but do you think that when an order is taken, if your staff were to print two receipts and hand one to the people who are preparing drinks, that your staff could take responsibility for fulfilling the order, and just leave your clients to double check?”

21st February Coffee Primo update:

I got good answers emailed back to me from Welcome break.  The last email was from a manager of one of the branches of Coffee Primo that we visited, saying that what I had suggested was actually the way they are supposed to work, with two till receipts.

They are going to do some work to make sure that all staff work to company standards at all times.

I think that they dealt with my problem very well.

It includes, without doubt, the worst song I have ever heard - I Whistle A Happy Tune.   Try it out on iTunes.

Led Zeppelin wrote 84 songs.  If you could choose your 10 favourites for them to play on December 10th 2007 which would they be?  The older ones?  Tons of stuff from Four Symbols?  Personally I really like In Through The Out Door, but if you’ve only got 10 songs to play with you’ve got to leave a lot out. 

Select your perfect Led Zeppelin set list for December 10th 2007

Don’t forget to answer the question which song would you start the concert with?

Bram’s awesome trainer Chris Green runs the Club Activ8 fencing team.  It took me a little while to find their website because I couldn’t figure out what name to search for, should it be Active 8, eight, Activiii or Activ111?

The East of England event was a qualifier for the British Youth Championships.  Fencers who wish to enter these competitions must enter these regional championships.

It really is time we replaced our chess clock and they’ve got loads of chess sets, chess boards, chess clocks and related paraphenalia.

PAS 78 sets out the steps that you need to follow to ensure your website accommodates the widest possible audience, dealing with the creation of an accessibility policy, the selection of web developers, and the vital role of user testing and maintenance.

PAS 78 is not a British standard, but it is developed using similar techniques, and results in guidance for people who are building websites, rather than standards. It identifies the need for accessible websites to adhere to W3C guidelines, and should include a description of the disabled users to be consulted during the development of the website.

This is great news for Ecru because we have a history of working closely with disability charity AbilityNet on major web development projects with the Crown Prosecution Service and Disability Action In Islington where these processes were engaged.

PAS 78 doesn’t make reference specifically to either WCAG 1.0 or the current draft WCAG 2.0 because of the need to be version neutral.

Website designers will need to be able to describe how their solutions meet the accessibility targets outlined in accessibility policies, describing how their design processes follow ISO 13407 Human-centred design processes for interactive systems, and describe how they will validate early designs with users, including disabled users.

Ecru’s easy to use content management system has already demonstrated it’s ability to deliver standards compliant accessible code, passing independent audit by AbilityNet on the Disability Action In Islington project which achieved AAA accessibility.

Ideally, website testing should be undertaken by users with medium and severe vision impairments, mild, medium and severe motor difficulties, medium dyslexia and mild to medium learning or cognitive disabilities.

Get in touch with Ecru.co.uk to discuss your accessible web project.