[Web4lib] Resources? -- Web Standards and Semantic Markup

Wed May 2 09:26:38 EDT 2007

I guess I more cynical. 

I work with multilingual content, and
when you mix standards compliance and accessibility with multilingual
content many web developers and most CMS products fail to get it right.

Those parts of the standards that are well understood are
implemented well. But its common for internationalization features not to
meet best practice.

Mixing multilingual ocntant and
accessibility is even more fun. I can think of a few sites aiming for
"AA" or "AAA" that fail to meet some "A"
checkpoints because they haven't internationalized the site properly, or
fail to understand that the inteded audience of the content should match
the intended audience of implemented accessibility techniques.

I haven't seen many library or government sites that get it right. 

Andj.

On Wed, May 2, 2007 5:52 pm, David Kane wrote:
> Hi Andrew, you make the point well.
> 
> There has
been a lot of interest in web content management systems for
>
libraries recently.  In our experience the use of a CMS makes us more
> able to create a semantic, accessible, standards compliant page.  I
have
> a paper coming out in June's 'Library Hi-Tech', which is a
case study of
> what we did with our library website and it makes
this point.
> 
> Offprint available on request.
>

> David.
> 
> David Kane
> Waterford
Institute of Technology
> http://library.wit.ie/
> T:
++353.51302838
> M: ++353.876693212
>>>> Andrew R
Stevens <asteven4 at gmu.edu> 05/02/07 1:08 AM >>>
>
David Kane wrote:
>> Hi Andrew, Tim, All,
>>
>> I think that web standards can have a normative force insofar
as a
>> standards-compliant website whose markup reflects the
semantics of the
>> content will lend itself very readily (in
my experience) to compliance
>> with WAI and Section 508
guidelines.
>>
> 
> Yes, it that is a very
compelling argument in favor paying attention to
> web standards. 
In fact, it's difficult to create a highly accessible
> site with
an ambivalent view of standards.
> 
> A wrote a brief
piece on this subject for a workshop a couple years ago:
> 
> Accessibility benefits of "standards-based design" and
"structural
> markup"
>
<http://www.4serendipity.com/accessibility/struct/>
> 
>>
>> Another possible justification for standards
compliance is that the
>> separation of style from the content
typically creates a smaller file
>> size.  Some people also say
that a semantically structured document
>> lends itself more
readily to search indexing.  This sounds good, so
> you
>> can say it to your boss if you like, but I am unaware of any
evidence
> to
>> support it.
> 
> This
another valuable beneficial outcome of using standard markup. A
>
related benefit is the ease with which standard markup is maintained.
> Marking up pages best suited to quirky user agents leads to a
quirky
> product that will require future maintainers to
unnecessarily
> familiarize themselves with the quirks.
>

> Another benefit of web standards, and standards in general, is
that they
> 
> provide the developers of access devices
with an established format to
> which to design their devices for.
The alternative is to either mimic
> another device's bugs or to
create a new, unique interpretation of web
> languages that may or
may not to compatible with other access devices.
> Either of the
these alternative approaches leads to a "wild west"
>
scenario where one could never be sure of that the current, ad hoc
> authoritative implementation will still be dominant next year or
next
> month.
> 
> A couple oldie, but still good
reads on this topic are:
> 
> Site Valet - Why
Validate?
> <http://valet.htmlhelp.com/page/why.html>
> 
> 4 Reasons to Validate your HTML
>
<http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/reasons.html>
> 
> 
> For additional reading pleasure attached below are a few
links related
> to a presentation that I've given regarding web
standards.
> 
> *General Reading on Web Standards
> 
> Zeldman, J. (2003). Designing With Web Standards.
Indianapolis: New
> Riders.
> 
> Cederholm, D.
(2004). Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style
> Handbook.
Berkeley, CA: Friends of ED.
> 
> SimpleBits | Web
Standards Link Bonanza
>
http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/06/21/bonanza.html
> 
> What Every Web Site Owner Should Know About Standards: A Web
Standards
> Primer
> http://www.maccaws.org/kit/primer/
> 
> The Way Forward with Web Standards
>
http://www.maccaws.org/kit/way-forward/
> 
> Design by
Fire: The real reason you should care about web standards
>
http://www.designbyfire.com/000099.html
> 
> mezzoblue: A
Roadmap to Standards
>
http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/04/30/a_roadmap_to/
> 
> mezzoblue: Standards Resources for Beginners
>
http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/08/25/standards_re/
> 
> 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete
> An excerpt from Forward
Compatibility: Designing & Building With
> Standards
>
http://www.digital-web.com/features/feature_2002-09.shtml
> 
> Accessibility benefits of "standards-based design" and
"structural
> markup"
>
http://www.4serendipity.com/accessibility/struct/
> 
>
*Bugs, Quirks, and Issues
> 
> 4 Reasons to Validate your
HTML
> http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/reasons.html
> 
> Toward a standard font size interval system
>
http://style.cleverchimp.com/font_size_intervals/altintervals.html
> 
> Owen Brigss' CSS text sizing page
>
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/font/index.html
> An overview of various CSS text sizing methods. Includes a nice
> selection of screenshots of each method in various browsers.
> 
> Images, Tables, and Mysterious Gaps
>
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Images,_Tables,_and_Mysterious_Gaps
> Explains how Gecko (Netscape 6+, Mozilla, etc.) renders images in
tables
> 
> when "standards" mode is
triggered.
> 
> *Doctype Switch and Browser Rendering
Modes
> 
> Summary of Doctypes and the layout modes they
trigger
> http://www.hut.fi/u/hsivonen/doctype.html
> 
> The Opera 7 DOCTYPE Switches
>
http://www.opera.com/docs/specs/doctype/
> 
> CSS
Enhancements in Internet Explorer 6
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnie60/html/cssenhancements.asp
> Details which Doctype triggers which rendering mode in IE 6 and
lists
> some of the differences between the "standards"
and "quirks" mode in
> this browser.
> 
> Mozilla's Quirks Mode
>
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/quirks/
> Mozilla also
provides a detailed outline of Mozilla quirks mode
> behavior.
> 
> Gecko's "Almost Standards" Mode
>
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko's_%22Almost_Standards%22_Mode
> 
> Gecko Compatibility Handbook
>
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko_Compatibility_Handbook
> Discusses Gecko (Netscape 6+, Mozilla, etc.) standards support
and
> solutions to common issues with this rendering engine.
> 
> *'Hiding' CSS links
> 
> Centrical's CSS
filters page
> http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
> 
> Dithered.com CSS filters page
>
http://www.dithered.com/css_filters/
> 
> Hiding CSS with
@import
>
http://w3development.de/css/hide_css_from_browsers/import/
> 
> CSS Wiki - CSS Hacks
>
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssHacks
> 
> The Box
Model Hack
> http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html
> 
> Size Matters
> An article detailing an
implementation of the BMH to control font size
> across
browsers.
> http://www.alistapart.com/stories/sizematters/
> 
> Internet Explorer conditional comments
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/ccomment_ovw.asp
> 
> 
>
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-- 
Andrew Cunningham
Research and Development Coordinator
Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
Australia

andrewc at vicnet.net.au