How Much Do Bloggers Care About Web Standards?

After reading an article from A List Apart about the 12 Lessons for Those Afraid of CSS and Standards by Ben Henick, I wonder if bloggers, especially those using standalone installations, are beginning to appreciate the power of CSS and Web standards. Despite all the fuss about content being king and content management systems becoming easier to use, do bloggers even care to click on their Valid XHTML and Valid CSS footer links? What does content really mean to them?

It’s a good thing to see many theme designers carry out their designs in valid XHTML and CSS codes. The extra step they take in letting their designs render properly in multiple Web browsers shows that they do care about content. However, it’s a sad fact that most bloggers who use these themes rarely realize that effort. To most of them, content is a literal term. As long as they have something to put their words and images on, they have content.

In blogging, it seems ironic that many of us are aware of the importance of the presentation and structure of our articles. What we failed to realize though, is that the very platform where we put our articles also has presentation and structure.

This is the essence of the World Wide Web. We create content through presentation and structure. This means that when writing our articles, we should be able to distinguish a heading from a paragraph, or a tabular data from an element container. For example, instead of doing this:

<p><strong>My Top 5 Headers</strong></p>

You should be doing this: <h3>My Top 5 Headers</h3>.

In addition:

• Use alt tags in images.
• Use <strong> instead of <b>
• Use <em> instead of <i>
• Separate your XHTML structure from your presentation. Use CSS.
• Validate your Web pages

These are simple practices that we often fail to do because we are so engaged in our content. And as long as our content attains its visual goals, we’re done. We don’t look at what lies beneath the presentation anymore. This should not be the case. Remember that the Web isn’t just for people who can read. There are visually impaired and differently abled individuals too, who rely on screen readers to access information. Let us not deprive them of our content.

A standards compliant blog would most likely be thought of as more accessible. Conforming to Web standards doesn’t just mean taking that extra step to achieve proper structure. Above all, it means that you care about the welfare of others and that you don’t want them to have a hard time accessing your content.

What Can You Do To Help?

Here’s an outline of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines:

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
2. Don’t rely on color alone.
3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
4. Clarify natural language usage.
5. Create tables that transform gracefully.
6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
9. Design for device-independence.
10. Use interim solutions.
11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
12. Provide context and orientation information.
13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

It would be best if all the things outlined above are followed. However, just being aware of the guidelines will surely help bloggers produce content that has genuine presentation and structure in the future.

Let’s make accessibility a part of our code of conduct. Let’s also make it a habit to produce content that can be accessed by anyone, not just the majority. Lastly, let us show to others that we truly care. And hopefully, it begins now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 16:04 and is filed under Journal, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.