Webstandards
Are there standards for web pages and who establishes these standards? In 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium W3C was founded. This panel develops technical standards for the World Wide Web, for example for (X)HTML and CSS. As the W3C is not an officially recognized organization, these standards are not binding. However, the approved recommendations are widely regarded as a de facto standard.
W3C Guidelines
The W3C works continuously on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The recent version WCAG 2.0 was published in December 2008. These recommendations were developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the WCAG. The guidelines aim at a high accessibility of web contents and components. Web pages, which comply with the guidelines, should be accessible for people with sensoric or motoric limitations. In Germany, the implementation of these standards were enacted in 2002 in the Barrier-free Information Technology Act (Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung BITV), which is a guideline for all providers of web content, but obligatory only for state institutions.
The four principles of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Perceptibility
- Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
- Provide captions and alternatives for audio and video content.
- Make content adaptable; and make it available to assistive technologies.
- Use sufficient contrast to make things easy to see and hear.
Operability
- Make all functionality operable via keyboard interface.
- Give users enough time to read and use content.
- Do not use content that causes seizures.
- Help users navigate and find content.
Understandability
- Make text readable and understandable.
- Make the placement and functionality of content predictable.
- Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
Robustness
- Maximize compatibility with current and future technologies.
The W3C provides a validator to verify whether a web document employs valid (X)HTML and CSS.
Further information
Validation
- W3C Markup Validation Service
- Markup-Validation respectively WCAG for HTML / XHTML / WML / XML by Selfhtml.org (German)
- Barrierefinder/Graustufentest (German)
- Cynthia Web Content Accessibility Validation
Validation results of this page
Reaching standards
My current projects meet the requirements of the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium. Content and layout are separated by linked CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) files. A high semantic density creates the required structure, enhances accessibility and reduces barriers to information and is in tune with the requirements of search engine optimization.
