Challenge Summary
The AOL/TopCoder Sensations Developer Challenge is a competition to develop new and exciting ways to address accessibility issues on the web.
For this contest, you will be building the Sensations Developer Challenge prototype based on the winning storyboard design.
This driving force of this Developer Challenge is accessibility - so accessibility is a critical aspect of this prototype.
Entries must be your original work, and must not infringe on the copyright or licenses of others. Stock art, clip art, templates and other design elements from other sources are prohibited unless specifically permitted here in the Contest Details.
Challenge Background Information As the Internet becomes more and more a part of everyday life, there is an increased need for developing accessible sites and software so that everyone can benefit from the value they provide. The AOL/TopCoder Sensations Developer Challenge was created to seek out and develop ideas that promote accessibility in creative new ways that can be applied to existing sites, software, and APIs on the Internet. Target Audience Both participants and non-participants of the Developer Challenge will visit this site regularly to check news, stats and winners. It will also be featured at the 2009 TopCoder Open, so it will be very highly prominent. Required Pages You will be building two (2) pages and three (3) page placeholders for this prototype. Home Page (home.jpg) The following edits need to be made to the storyboard file: - Remove text links in the header (TopCoder, Rules, FAQ) - Remove login completely - Move the tagline (Hear, Touch, and See with the icons) to the header Topic Center (topic.jpg) The following edits need to be made to the storyboard file: - Remove search box in the right column Learn More, Register, Panel You are responsible for making empty pages for these areas. The pages do not need to have any content but should have the navigation working and displaying properly. Accessibility This site is about promoting accessibility throughout the web. Therefore, it's more important than ever that this prototype be completely accessible. All of AOL's Accessibility information can be found here: http://dev.aol.com/topic/accessibility AOL Accessibility Requirements: http://dev.aol.com/accessibility/requirements AOL Accessibility Best Practices: http://dev.aol.com/accessibility/bestpractices We have provided an Accessibility Checklist that MUST be completed and submitted with your prototype. HTML / CSS - All of your code MUST meet all of the Accessibility Requirements in the provided checklist - Your HTML code must be XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant - Validate your code - we will accept minor validation errors, but please comment your reason for any validation errors. - Your code must render properly and be compeltely accessible in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2 and 3, Google Chrome and Safari in both Mac and PC environments. JavaScript All JavaScript must not have a copyright by a third party. You are encouraged to use your own scripts, or scripts that are free, publicly available and do not have copyright statements or author recognition requirements anywhere in the code. You may use the jQuery javascript library in this contest All javascript use needs to degrade gracefully and still support all accessibilty needs. Judging Criteria Your submission will be judged on the following criteria: - How well is adheres to the Accessibility Guidelines provided - How well it matches the provided storyboard - How well it meets the goals of the contest as a whole Preview Image Your preview image should be a view of the Home page with no added effects or skewing.
Challenge Background Information As the Internet becomes more and more a part of everyday life, there is an increased need for developing accessible sites and software so that everyone can benefit from the value they provide. The AOL/TopCoder Sensations Developer Challenge was created to seek out and develop ideas that promote accessibility in creative new ways that can be applied to existing sites, software, and APIs on the Internet. Target Audience Both participants and non-participants of the Developer Challenge will visit this site regularly to check news, stats and winners. It will also be featured at the 2009 TopCoder Open, so it will be very highly prominent. Required Pages You will be building two (2) pages and three (3) page placeholders for this prototype. Home Page (home.jpg) The following edits need to be made to the storyboard file: - Remove text links in the header (TopCoder, Rules, FAQ) - Remove login completely - Move the tagline (Hear, Touch, and See with the icons) to the header Topic Center (topic.jpg) The following edits need to be made to the storyboard file: - Remove search box in the right column Learn More, Register, Panel You are responsible for making empty pages for these areas. The pages do not need to have any content but should have the navigation working and displaying properly. Accessibility This site is about promoting accessibility throughout the web. Therefore, it's more important than ever that this prototype be completely accessible. All of AOL's Accessibility information can be found here: http://dev.aol.com/topic/accessibility AOL Accessibility Requirements: http://dev.aol.com/accessibility/requirements AOL Accessibility Best Practices: http://dev.aol.com/accessibility/bestpractices We have provided an Accessibility Checklist that MUST be completed and submitted with your prototype. HTML / CSS - All of your code MUST meet all of the Accessibility Requirements in the provided checklist - Your HTML code must be XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant - Validate your code - we will accept minor validation errors, but please comment your reason for any validation errors. - Your code must render properly and be compeltely accessible in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2 and 3, Google Chrome and Safari in both Mac and PC environments. JavaScript All JavaScript must not have a copyright by a third party. You are encouraged to use your own scripts, or scripts that are free, publicly available and do not have copyright statements or author recognition requirements anywhere in the code. You may use the jQuery javascript library in this contest All javascript use needs to degrade gracefully and still support all accessibilty needs. Judging Criteria Your submission will be judged on the following criteria: - How well is adheres to the Accessibility Guidelines provided - How well it matches the provided storyboard - How well it meets the goals of the contest as a whole Preview Image Your preview image should be a view of the Home page with no added effects or skewing.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.