Standards
What are they?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes guidelines and recommendations for standards on the web in order for web designers and developers to create more accessible web sites. The standards are agreed upon by the the W3C member organizations around the world in order to accommodate the growing diversity of hardware, software and most importantly, people. Sites that are built to meet web standards will be more accessible and more usable by a greater audience.
How does this benefit you?
Website designers, the website users and the website owner benefit from web standards. Web site development and management is easier for the web designer/developer. The web site user’s experience is enriched and allows the site to be viewed by the greatest audience possible. The benefits are mostly seen by the website owner:
- Lower maintenance costs
- Faster download times and lower costs of bandwidth and hosting
- More accessible to a greater range of users, especially those with disabilities. Such as screen readers, mobile devices (phones & PDAs), older browsers and those with slower connections.
- Better search engine optimization
- More flexible to future technology
- Pages are far more print friendly
- Code can be understood by a wider range of developers so as to not be dependent on one developer
- Site-wide changes can be made quickly for layout and design
United States legal precedent set for web accessibility
On September 7, 2006, a U.S. federal district court judge ruled that a retailer may be sued if their website is inaccessible to the blind. The judge ruled in a case brought forward by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corporation. Target’s website (www.target.com) is charged as being inaccessible to the blind in the suit, therefore violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Persons Act. In an attempt to dismiss, Target argued that no law requires them to make its website accessible. The motion to dismiss was denied by the court and stated that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as target.com.
