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Active Member
Article by Matt our New Media Director
Firstly you may be asking yourself what are Compliancy Standards? It’s a fair question and unless you’re responsible for designing and developing websites you’re unlikely to have encountered it. Compliancy Standards is a term used to describe websites and web browser’s relative compliance with the standards proposed by the World Wide Consortium (W3C) for interoperability of web content.
Put simply this asks is your website accessible and understood by as wide an online audience as possible without discrimination to limitations of technology and disability?
This includes the code used to build the website, HTML, PHP, ASP, Javascript etc., the rise in use of CSS style sheets and other rich media technologies in determining how your website looks in a browser. A cursory look around the web will demonstrate clearly that most web pages don’t comply with the W3C’s specifications.
The most obvious accusation for failing to comply is that the developer has been lazy – as long as the site displays correctly to themselves and their clients they ignore the wider public unless there are obvious functional errors – but the tools have to be in place to make compliancy achievable. Whilst huge advancements have been made in recent years by the likes of Mozilla Firefox and Opera to ensure better interoperability to help developers meet compliancy standards there is still room for improvement and anyone simply checking across a range of browsers isn’t doing enough.
The variances between different browser versions and platforms can be maddeningly difficult to level out but it is worth the time and effort and this is the assertion of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) a group of professional developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of web standards worldwide and reducing the cost and complexity of achieving that goal.
It’s not compulsory is it?
W3C long ago decided they didn’t wish to only be a standards agency – leaving that job to ISO – which is why their particular standards are often mistakenly seen as mere guidelines. We can say emphatically that W3C web development criteria are not guidelines they are far more important than that which is why meeting Level 1 W3C standards means you also meet those set out by the DDA and therefore are not potentially breaking the law.
Can I check my website?
Once you’ve decided that compliancy standards aren’t just something you’d like to try and that the benefits far outweigh the time and cost of having a compliant website you’ll need to determine where you’re currently situated.
If you already have a website you can visit http://validator.w3.org – and enter your domain name. Prepare yourself for bad news as it’s unlikely you’ll pass, but on the positive side you will be told what’s wrong and armed with this information you can move ahead with improvements and fix things.
Isn’t compliancy a lot of fuss for little reward?
Actually no, spending some time to get your standards up to scratch can earn you much more than respect or a pat on the back. According to a recent Disability Rights Commission survey around 81% of websites are not fully compliant so a huge number are missing out on the added benefits of compliancy such as;
Your website is elevated to a new level when it comes to customer experience, search engine indexing and online validation. There’s a greater opportunity to get a return on your investment and you can be satisfied that you’re doing everything you can to help usher in a more inclusive era of online content.
Compliancy Standards ? Why Bother? | Armadillo Creative
Firstly you may be asking yourself what are Compliancy Standards? It’s a fair question and unless you’re responsible for designing and developing websites you’re unlikely to have encountered it. Compliancy Standards is a term used to describe websites and web browser’s relative compliance with the standards proposed by the World Wide Consortium (W3C) for interoperability of web content.
Put simply this asks is your website accessible and understood by as wide an online audience as possible without discrimination to limitations of technology and disability?
This includes the code used to build the website, HTML, PHP, ASP, Javascript etc., the rise in use of CSS style sheets and other rich media technologies in determining how your website looks in a browser. A cursory look around the web will demonstrate clearly that most web pages don’t comply with the W3C’s specifications.
The most obvious accusation for failing to comply is that the developer has been lazy – as long as the site displays correctly to themselves and their clients they ignore the wider public unless there are obvious functional errors – but the tools have to be in place to make compliancy achievable. Whilst huge advancements have been made in recent years by the likes of Mozilla Firefox and Opera to ensure better interoperability to help developers meet compliancy standards there is still room for improvement and anyone simply checking across a range of browsers isn’t doing enough.
The variances between different browser versions and platforms can be maddeningly difficult to level out but it is worth the time and effort and this is the assertion of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) a group of professional developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of web standards worldwide and reducing the cost and complexity of achieving that goal.
It’s not compulsory is it?
W3C long ago decided they didn’t wish to only be a standards agency – leaving that job to ISO – which is why their particular standards are often mistakenly seen as mere guidelines. We can say emphatically that W3C web development criteria are not guidelines they are far more important than that which is why meeting Level 1 W3C standards means you also meet those set out by the DDA and therefore are not potentially breaking the law.
Can I check my website?
Once you’ve decided that compliancy standards aren’t just something you’d like to try and that the benefits far outweigh the time and cost of having a compliant website you’ll need to determine where you’re currently situated.
If you already have a website you can visit http://validator.w3.org – and enter your domain name. Prepare yourself for bad news as it’s unlikely you’ll pass, but on the positive side you will be told what’s wrong and armed with this information you can move ahead with improvements and fix things.
Isn’t compliancy a lot of fuss for little reward?
Actually no, spending some time to get your standards up to scratch can earn you much more than respect or a pat on the back. According to a recent Disability Rights Commission survey around 81% of websites are not fully compliant so a huge number are missing out on the added benefits of compliancy such as;
- Improved search engine rankings
- More efficient Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Faster navigation speeds
- Quicker loading times
- An enhanced online profile
- Strong visitor retention
- Increased revenue (by a minimum of 10% on average)
Your website is elevated to a new level when it comes to customer experience, search engine indexing and online validation. There’s a greater opportunity to get a return on your investment and you can be satisfied that you’re doing everything you can to help usher in a more inclusive era of online content.
Compliancy Standards ? Why Bother? | Armadillo Creative