Uncomplicate the Web

Follow standards to achieve Universal Accessibility

2011-04-15T04:37:00.000-07:00

With revolutionary changes in the ICT arena browsing the web has changed a lot during past years. It has gone far beyond the use by people using personal computers. The Web now-a-day can be accessed by:

• People - of different age and abilities
• Software – different type of user agents like search engines, browsers with varying features, capabilities and support etc.
• Machines – PCs, Laptops, Mobile Phones, PDAs and other hand held devices

By Universal Accessibility I mean to make a website useful for all, irrespective of technology, platforms, devices or disabilities of any kind - to accommodate most of people, softwares and machines.

A non-accessible website could trouble an individual in many ways. For example, images that do not have alt text cannot be interpreted by screen readers or cannot be understood by an individual using slow speed internet if the images fail to download. A video that is not described in text or audio is inaccessible to the visually challenged. Another example could be forms that cannot be tabbed through in a logical sequence or form fields that have not been label tagged properly. Similarly, Websites that lack keyboard access cannot be used by the visually challenged and the list could go on.

As the variety of web access methods increases, adjusting or duplicating websites to satisfy all needs will become increasingly difficult. Following standards is a major step towards solving this problem. Making your sites standards-compliant will help ensure not only that traditional browsers, old and new, will all be able to present sites properly, but also that they will work with unusual browsers and media.

Complying with web standards can help accommodate the varied user group. It will give your web pages greater visibility in web searches. The structural information present in compliant documents makes it easy for search engines to access and evaluate the information in those documents, and they get indexed more accurately. Further, it becomes easier for server-side as well as client-side software to understand the structure of your document.

From a developer’s perspect, writing compliant code gives you an opportunity of validating your page with validation services. Validators process your documents and present you with a list of errors. This makes finding and correcting errors a lot easier, and can save you a lot of time.

Web developers, Browser development companies and Companies developing publishing tools and Content Management Systems are major stake holders who can contribute in greater way to help make a more standard and inclusive Web.

Write clean, standard, compliant HTML

2011-04-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

HTML is the core of web page(s). Clean HTML coding will reduce page size, make the website search engine friendlier and increase accessibility. The advantages of clean, semantic HTML are many, yet due importance has not been given to writing proper markup.

The benefits of clean standards compliant HTML code:

Greater number of users are accommodated.
Search engine spiders can read the search engine optimized content.
Website will be more accessible.
Building sites with standards compliant coding will degrade/last longer as the standards are upgraded. When a new standard is implemented it will take less work to upgrade.
Lower cost of producing the website.
Website will be backwards compliant as the browsers improve.
Easier to maintain and update content.
Website will be compatible with the current browsers and future browsers.
Faster download time.
Page(s) will be rendered faster.
Page(s) will render better.
Saving of bandwidth

The web has gone complicated.

2011-04-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Just after five years, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was established in 1994. The sole purpose was to develop specifications, guidelines, software and tools that can help the Web to harness its full potential. Since its inception, the Web has grown enormously. I think even Sir Lee would not have though of its present size, reach, impact and usages. Almost every day we witness some or the other bright idea coming up on the big canvas - the Web. The growth has been phenomenal.

Complicity comes naturally with size. I feel, with the growth the Web has also gone complicated. The big issues that has cropped in are usability and accessibility. As of today (13th April 2011), the Indexed Web contains at least 14.56 billion pages (Source: http://www.worldwidewebsize.com).

The United Nations contracted Nomensa to conduct an audit on Internet accessibility for persons with disabilities. The aim of the survey was to obtain an indication concerning the existing status of accessibility of websites that persons with disabilities might access as part of their daily lives. The result was shocking: " MOST of the leading websites around the world do not meet international standards for accessibility."

With such a huge portion of Web remaining inaccessible the desired usability remains a dream. Poor implementation of standards and guidelines have become an integral part of the present state of the Web. Searching the Web and finding the relevant results are becoming increasingly challenging.

We need to come out of this state of complicity. Sooner the better. There is an urgent need to think over the issues that attributed to this state of Web. More important is to take measures so that the Web of future is largely accessible, usable and informative.

Let's start making contribution to uncomplicate the Web. Together we can do it.