2. in the beginning, there was a man
• Jeffrey Zeldman
• Web Standards Project (WaSP) 1998
• Fights for standards that reduce the cost
and complexity of development while
increasing the accessibility and long-term
viability of any site published on the Web
• Works with browser and authoring tool
manufacturers
3. stan*dard
• n. something, such as a product or
practice, that is widely recognised or
employed, especially because of its
excellence
• adj. regularly used, widely available or
supplied
4.
5. why adopt web standards?
• Device independence
• Faster page loads
• Lower bandwidth usage
• Ease of maintenance
• Improved user experience
• Less lock-in to proprietary technology
• Extensible
• Accessibility
6. XHTML, CSS and the DOM
• Standards call for a separation of
structure, style and behaviour
• XHTML defines the structure
• CSS defines the style
• The DOM (Document Object Model)
controls behaviour
7. XHTML
• eXtensible HyperText Markup Language
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”
“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>
<html xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=“en”>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv=“Content-Type” content=“text/html; charset=utf-8” />
</head>
<body>
<img src=“myPic.jpg” height=“10” width=“10” alt=“A picture of me” />
<p>I want to <em>emphasise</em> this point <strong>strongly</strong>.</p>
</body>
</html>
9. JavaScript (DOM)
• JavaScript doesn’t kill websites, people
with JavaScript kill ’em
• Keep external
• Degrade gracefully
function doPopups()
{ if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return false;
var links = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i=0; i < links.length; i++)
{ if (links[i].className.match("popup"))
{ links[i].onclick = function()
{ window.open(this.href); return false; } } } }
window.onload = doPopups;
10. accessibility
“ Web accessibility is about
designing sites so as many
people as possible can
access them effectively
and easily, independent of
who they are or how they
“
access the net
11. who are we talking about?
• 9 million people in the UK have a
disability under the Disability
Discrimination Act
• It is not just the blind!
• People with hearing difficulties
• Motor difficulties
• Cognitive difficulties
• Many have a combination
13. motor difficulties
• Using a keyboard and mouse may be difficult
• Alternative mouse and keyboard designs
• Voice recognition
• Use logical tabbing order
• Offer user-defined access keys
• Limit number of links
• Clear target area negating fine mouse control
14. cognitive difficulties
• These include dyslexia, memory impairments
and attention deficit disorders
• Keep the language clear
• Avoid jargon
• Use consistent navigation
• Use graphical icons as navigational aids
• Content should be well spaced, in a non-serif
font and not fully justified
• Dyslexic users prefer a beige background
15. implementing accessibility
• Accessibility needs to be built in, not
bolted on
• Cannot rely solely on automatic testing
tools
• Guidelines are exactly that
• Until standards are universal,
accessibility will be a major challenge
• Prepare for change
16. further reading
• Designing with Web Standards – Jeffrey
Zeldman (ISBN:0321616952)
• Don’t Make Me Think! – Steve Krug
(ISBN:0321344758)
• http://www.webstandards.org
• http://www.alistapart.com
• http://delicious.com/thatstandardsguy/accessibility
