Web Standards

We think of the Internet as a recent addition to our lives, but the World Wide Web actually began as an experiment by the Department of Defense in the early 1960s. By the late 1980s, the Web was routinely used as a means to exchange information between researchers and educators around the world.

In 1990, HyperText Mark-up Language, a document formatting language more commonly known as HTML was developed. HTML gained wide spread use as a means to write documents for the Web, and in 1994 a group was formed: the World Wide Web consortium (or W3C.) Their efforts guide standards for future development and enhancements of the HTML language. The W3C was (and still is) a non-partisan group of interested parties from various universities, corporations, small businesses, as well as individuals from countries around the world. The W3C outline standards that describe ways to code and format textual information including things like headings, paragraphs, links to other Web pages, and images.

So What is the Need?

In the beginning HTML Web pages could be accessed with browsers cross-platform — meaning that an Apple computer, a PC, Sun or Unix system could access the same information and it would display in close to the same manner. In the mid-90s, companies such as Freedom Scientific or Synapse also began to develop assistive technologies—programs that could interpret the content on a Web page, and then audibly read it back to a viewer.

Access to the Web based information was not regulated, and throughout the 90s, the browser developers at Netscape and Microsoft began to implement browser features and add proprietary methods to display elements, thus departing from the W3C's recommendations.

What changed? With HTML 3.0 came support for tables and text flow. Once this was possible, Web designers/developers began to change the manner in which information was presented. Instead of displaying information in a running layout with minor styling attributes, designers found ways to create rich, graphical presentations by exploiting the W3C table standard as a layout mechanism. The Web became a graphical playground, browsers continued to add proprietary standards, and competition between Netscape and Internet Explorer was heightened.

While on one hand, I believe this was a good thing for the Web—the ability to create creative, branded, marketing experiences was met with excitement and enthusiasm by companies and people around the globe. There was a race to be part of this new medium and the "dot com" era was born. As well, Web development became the fastest growing industry in the world bringing new job opportunities to many (like myself!)

On the other hand, part of the very essence of the Web—the ability to share data from multiple platforms, across various devices, around the world—was diminished. Soon there were Web sites that prominently (and proudly) displayed warnings and advisories like "this site is best viewed by Netscape" or "this site requires the use of Internet Explorer." Some sites were virtually inaccessible by non-graphical browsers. The populations most adversely affected by this change were those who accessed the Web with assistive technologies such as screen or Braille readers.

Since the early years of the Web, the W3C has continually updated and revised its Web standards regarding HTML, and newer technologies like XML, XHTML, and Cascading Style Sheets have been introduced. Today, adhering to Web standards means that Web pages are coded in such a way as to separate the structure and content from its presentation. Standards compliant markup uses valid HTML/XHTML to describe the structure of a document, and then a document's presentation is controlled by Cascading Style Sheets. Separating content from the way it is presented makes the page content device-independent and site visitors can access information using a Web browser, mobile phone, PDA or using a screen reader.

For the most part, browser manufacturers have not kept up to date with the most current standards, and the manner in which the various browsers implement Web technologies, such as Cascading Style Sheets, is not consistent browser to browser or cross-platform. The way a Web site coded to standards displays with the Safari browser on a Macintosh may be very different than its display with Internet Explorer when viewed on a PC.

There has been a recent movement among many supporters of the W3C to influence and inspire browser manufacturers to return the fundamental goal of the Web by adopting the W3C's recommendations thereby ensuring a level of browser and cross-platform equivalence. These efforts have made a difference. Today, browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox, Netscape Navigator, and Opera are much closer to Web standard compliance than Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer is losing popularity to these browsers and has lost a good part of its market share. Internet Explorer held close to a 95% market share in 2003 and has decreased to about 80.9% today. That is still a majority, and IE has other problems (like their ever-ongoing security issues) so the decrease cannot be attributed simply to Web standards, but if according to recent statistics, 168 million people use the Web each day, that's a loss of 23.7 million daily customers. (In my own little world, 80% of those visiting Worqx.com browsed using IE 2 years ago - that is now down to 54%.)

As well, there has been an underground movement of sorts seeking to promote the adherence of Web standards by the development community. Coding pages that are as visually intricate as those currently on the Web is still possible, but the way developers achieve the 'look and feel' is a shift in technique from the manner in which many designers are used to working. With any new technology there is a learning curve, and since the other method of design layout 'work' for many browsers and can be used by the majority of visitors, changing techniques to accommodate accessibility requirements or comply with Web standards has been avoided by many. Web sites like the CSS Zen Garden, or the cssbeauty.com gallery offer examples of the creative possibilities obtainable with site designs that comply with Web standards.

Web standards can save time and money for Web site owners, developers and designers, and provide a better experience to their Web site's visitors.(Johansson, Oct. 2004.)

Complying with web standards also prepares for the future. Developing Web sites in this manner eliminates assumptions about what technologies users should use to view a Web resource. As more options become available to our users such as PDAs, cell phones, and a broader range of technologies continues to emerge, our users will be able to restyle Web information for their own purposes and needs.