Compliance

Are you of the thinking that if something looks good is a respectable web browser such as Firefox, Safari, Opera, or Internet Explorer, then it is satisfactory (especially if the code also validates using the W3C validator)?
Have you ever tried to browse the web using a screen-reader such as JAWS or Opera Browser/Audible?

Building an inaccessible web
Content and application accessibility is not being regarded with as much importance as it deserves. Currently, too much focus is put on the lowest common denominator, and investing time and resources in features and implementation strategies that will get the biggest bang for the money and time is a commonly tolerated compromise. This Web Design and Development strategy is a direct result of letting business interests drive the way of the Internet. It is undeniable that the business community and capitalist market forces are responsible for the growth of the Internet from a scientific experiment, to the previously unimaginable medium that it is today. However, catering only to what will generate high dividends for share-holders can be lack of visions.

An example of this short-sighted drive to cater for the majority at the expense of the non-traditional and minority site visitor became clear to me in two situations where the CEO of a mid-size company asked this question when he was told that web applications built for the federal government had to be Section 508 compliant so that blind members of the public could use them: "Blind people do not read, and should they use the Internet?" In another situation, a senior project manager at another company remarked that to reduce server overhead, a new application would be built so that the last bits of XSLT logic to transform raw XML data to the UI (user interface) markup would be done in the web browser. When told about accessibility, and the use of non-traditional web browsers such as PDAs, text-only, and other browsers that are not able to parse XML/XSLT, he angrily responded that "We are building a rich application that will work with the latest browsers (IE6+, FF, Safari), opening the Web Application to non-traditional browsers is not part of this project and will have to be scoped separately as an enhancement"!!

The above-two are examples of some level of ignorance, disregard for Web Accessibility, and quick frustration with the otherwise meticulous process of making web sites and applications accessible. I cannot deny that it is slow, and anything but easy to attempt to code a site, and as opposed to previewing it in Mozilla Firefox or Internet explorer, to open up JAWS, or turn off the monitor and preview/browse the website/application without any visual information. This is also the biggest reason to make web-sites and applications accessible to blind, low-vision and otherwise disabled users.

No one can deny the the W3C placed and has continued to place importance and dedicate time and resources to developing the necessary techniques and infrastructure for designing and developing accessible websites and applications without compromising the eye-candy that we often rush for at the expense of accessibility. We therefor have very weak, or no reasons at all for not building accessible web applications and sites.

Currently, there may be relatively little motivation for business management to spend the extra time and resources required to make applications accessible. I once worked on a project that was launched despite my protests and warnings that the UI markup was not valid HTML or XHTML. The 'important' thing at that time is that the application was relatively stable and quite usable in Internet Explorer version 6, IE7, and Firefox. My protests seemed to many to be the passion or a lone and narrow-minded purist with little regard for the financial consequences of delaying the project so that the issues could be fixed and bring the web application to scope in terms of accessibility and code validity. The disregard for valid code soon begun to make the applications behaviour unpredictable, unstable, and difficult to quickly update because what initially seemed stable and usable became unstable when small changes were made

An ideal web presence presents an authentic and positive image of your company. On the web, strategic message design combined with an engaging graphical treatment of your website reinforces a lasting brand impression for your organization; this is how we make your vision a reality.

There are a variety of commercial and open source Web Content Management System (CMS) platforms in the market. We specialize in the installation, configuration, customization and template design of Web Content Management Systems based on Drupal. Drupal is extremely flexible and this characteristic makes it ideal for numerous configurations based on the unique requirements of every website.

cmsproducer.com has grown beyond the initial objective. It now serves to champion the development CMS powered websites based Web Standards, and W3C valid semantic markup. The Drupal framework has proven to be the ideal infrastructure for my projects. The visibility provided by the ideas and approaches discussed in the content on cmsproducer.com attracted notable individuals and organizations to request me to implement and brand Drupal powered CMS solutions for their institutions. With this momentum, I decided to leave my formal employment and dedicate all my time to my passion: Creation of websites based on Web Standards, and that are W3C valid, accessible, powered by a scalable and flexible CMS framework. Drupal has been the obvious choice for most of my clients and myself because it embodies, and is sustained by a similar passion for work-well-done.

Web Standards ensure that all content presented on the web is accessible by various media devices and channels in stable and predictable formats with content integrity. The basic structure that makes the Internet a worldwide inter-connection of networks is its protocols and standards.

Content Mark-up has evolved from the era of text-only presentation of information based on HTML (a sub-set of SGML), to todays websites that incorporate all possible forms of static and dynamic media. This revolutionary transformation has also brought about many proprietary technologies that hinder the original objective of the Internet (to enable content accessibility independent of the client platform).

In this apparently dismal situation, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has proposed a set of guidelines, best-practices, and semantic approaches that make it possible to markup content for predictable delivery and presentation on any platform. Adherence to these standards often increases web content production time in the short-term; but it enables websites to be accessible, fast-loading and compatible with virtually all standards compliant web clients; thereby increasing efficiency.

Web Standards are at the core of our site and Web CMS design and production. All our projects are validated using W3C validators before they are declared complete.

The truth has always been there

Web standards have always been there since the very inception of the Internet. Standards are the basis upon which the inter-connected networks that we call the Internet are a able to connect and relay information between each other. It is therefor surprising that those of us that are responsible for developing and designing websites have for so-long avoided, and even shunned the idea that implementing web standards is an important if not the most important factor in ensuring that content remains accessible, and that the Internet continues to grow. Lack of standards leads into a tower of babel with relatively isolated groups based on proprietary technologies unable to exchange information. A good example of this is the inability of any PC owner to access windows-update without having Microsoft's Internet Explorer Activex Controls. There are many examples of such technology islands that have their own share of examples.

Constant arm-twisting from IE zealots

After the defeat of the largely standards compliant Netscape 4.x by Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the browser wars of the early 2000s, things seemed so bad for anyone interested in a standards compliant Internet because of IE's dominance and it's disregard for established standards in favour of strategic business advantage. Since that time and upto the very recent past, trying to develop or enforce Web Standards often felt like evangelizing a marginal opinion with little support.

Revelation of what really matters

With time, it has become clear that disregard for standards for the short-term benefit of developing and using slightly advanced proprietary technology does not benefit anyone. The rise of XML, J2EE and web services in cross platform and technology neutral information exchange helped prove that standards make the Internet.

Less work in the long-run -Being standards compliant especially in developing web-sites and web applications has the benefit of making it easy to create and update web-sites while ensuring that these production will remain compatible with existing and future standards based technologies.

Do not sell your soul

All this seems to be good, but in the real world, there are pressures and circumstances that make it difficult to realistically adhere to web standards. For instance, in the layout and presentation of web-site content using CSS and XHTML, the interpretation of these languages is not uniform across browsers and even across versions of some browser families. While building a web application, I came to the painful realization that in order to be web standards compliant, but still be able to cater for a majority of my client's audience, I had to use a number of hacks to cater for Internet Explorer version 6 and below, while keeping IE7 in mind. Much as Microsoft has finally started building compliant browsers, they have done so in a peace-meal fashion. This means that IE7 is behaves like both IE6 and Firefox depending on the situation. Twisting myself out of shape to cater for a non standards compliant majority browser is only justifiable because the client has objectives that I must meet; and my personal or professional ideals are secondary

A few good men and women

In the increasingly frequent occasion when one finds a client that wants a completely standards compliant web-site, it is with ease and joy that web standards conscious developers and designers accept such a project. Such projects are easier to develop because they take advantage of the inbuilt development, presentation and maintenance efficiencies of web standards while saving the often long hours spent on making adjustments to cater for non-compliant media (browsers). Also, standards compliant code make it easy for the client to adapt the content and structure for use with other presentation media such as aural web browsers, hand-held devices (PocketPC, Palm, Blackberry, Mobile/cellular telephones and other non-traditional screen sizes).

Web producers and development managers have the onus to recommend and enforce web standards for their sanity (in the short-term) and that of their clients in the long-term. I must mention a few from the growing number of web standards evangelists that have given encouragement and reason to others who are working to make the Internet web standards compliant one <tag> at a time.

Recommended reading and listening:

• Deconstructing a Standards-Based Web Application - R. Marie Cox
• Accessible forms
• Web Design Advice Podcast - Paul & Marcus
• Throwing Tables out of the window