Designing Your Site with Web Standards
What are Web Standards?
Web standards are guidelines for browser developers, Web site developers, hardware manufacturers, designers and makers of assistive software for the handicapped, such as screen readers for the blind. These standards are developed by an international group called the World Wide Web Consortium, with 15 offices around the world. The W3C is headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
W3C standards are designed to ensure optimal interoperability and consistency among all browsers and other platforms for the Web. Adhering to these standards in designing Web sites is a new and growing movement, which also involves the makers of all browsers committing to these standards. Consider non-compliant sites and browsers like the Beta video format, and compliant sites and browsers like VHS. As the world moved toward VHS as a single international standard for video, some continued to use Beta cameras and tapes and to manufacture Beta VCRs. Of course, as VHS became the standard, those with Beta VCRs and cameras had to dish out more money to rent their movies at Blockbuster.
The situation is the same today. Many Web developers charge big bucks to develop non-compliant sites that are already outdated the minute they are launched. And one browser developer — Microsoft — continues to drag its feet in fixing hundreds of bugs in Internet Explorer, the only non-compliant browser. In addition, Microsoft software products that make "Web pages " (actually, they produce pages to be viewed in Internet Explorer) such as Word, Publisher and FrontPage create "Web pages" that are non-compliant and bloated, increasing page size and loading time by up to 1,000 percent.
What are the basic elements of Web Standards?
The basic elements of Web standards are (1) properly coded semantic HTML or XHTML pages, (2) use of CSS to specify design and (3) use of standard conventions to make Web pages easier for handicapped visitors to read. This results in pages that load faster, are easier to update, are accessible to the handicapped, take advantage of all new browser features, offer improved usability of printed Web pages and permit use of the site by other hardware, such as cell phones and PDAs. In regard to accessibility especially, Web standards are becoming increasingly important as advocates for the disabled have begun to sue organizations whose sites are not accessible to the blind, as evidenced by a recent high-profile lawsuit filed against Target because their Web site was not standards-compliant.
What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) separate all the design "instructions" from the Web page and put them all in a separate file called a stylesheet. Want to change a design element on all the pages in your site? Change a line or two in the stylesheet. Want to change the fonts on all pages in your site? Change a line on the stylesheet. If you were to see this page without an attached stylesheet, for example, it would be a basic Web page with only content. The content is what we call semantic, that is, paragraphs are marked as paragraphs, lists as lists, headings as headings, etc. How all those elements appear is the work of the stylesheet. So you could change the entire design of the entire Web site by changing the stylesheet. In fact, if you toggle between the three available designs for this site, that's just what you're doing. The page is the same; only the stylesheet is changed. Try printing this page. You'll see that a separate stylesheet is used for that.
Does it cost more to design a site using Web Standards?
No, in fact it can cost less, both in the short-term and the long term. For example, changing a design using the old-fashioned way of creating Web sites can be extremely time-consuming and involve changing thousands of lines of code in hundreds or even thousands of files. A similar change on a standards-compliant site may take only a few minutes and involve changing a couple of words in one file.
What does it mean for a Web site to validate?
Any page created using Web standards should generally validate using online services that check the page for compliance with Web standards. You can try validating this page by clicking on the XHTML, CSS or Section 508 link at the bottom of this page. If you are considering hiring a Web developer, you should check to see if his or her pages validate.
What is Section 508?
Section 508 is a 1986 amendment to the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which was further revised in 1998. It requires all federal agencies to provide Web sites that are accessible to the disabled. However, its impact is not confined to federal agencies. Many states have adopted the 508 standards as requirements for their agencies, anyone who does business with that state and anyone who receives state funding. So not-for-profit agencies that receive any state or federal funds through grants or contracts may be required to adhere to Section 508. As of this writing, the standards are self-enforced, but that may change, particularly as disability rights advocates have begun legal action against even private corporations whose Web sites are not accessible to the disabled.
