Archive for the ‘Validation’ category

Website Accessibility

July 6th, 2009

Accessibility is something that is rarely taken seriously and something most business owners are unaware of. By accessibility we mean your website being displayed properly to anyone and everyone that comes across your website, including the disabled. The FAE (Functional Accessibility Evaluator) is a great online validation tool that combines the validation from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Guidelines, the United States Federal Government Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Section 508), and the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA).

Some people would argue that it “takes too much time,” or “something they will do later” — but the fact of the matter is, your website should not ignore anyone. By creating a website that is completely accessible to anyone, you are entering into Universal Design. Last time you walked into a supermarket, did you realize the doors (most likely) opened up automatically for you? That function was originally designed to assist those in wheelchairs to enter the store more easily, while also helped anyone that was not disabled to enter the store easily too (while also reducing germs etc).

When you create a website that is accessible to the entire population, you are also enabling your website to be more search engine friendly, while also helping you become a better programmer / designer (three birds + , one stone).

Sources:

FAE (Functional Accessibility Evaluator)

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Guidelines

the United States Federal Government Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Section 508)

Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA)

Great book for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge on Web Standards or Accessibility:

Designing With Web Standards – Jeffrey Zeldman

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Validating Your Website

June 14th, 2009

I know this is an old concept to some out there, but many are still not validating their websites. Validation doesn’t exactly lend towards helping finish your client’s website in time, but it has many benefits that can help in the long run.

1. Cross Browser Compatibility
By validating your website, it gives you the confidence that it will look the same in all browsers. It’s actually simple compared to going to Browser Shots every time to see how your website looks, just to dial it in. Or even downloading a ton of browsers, and then testing them individually. My point, by validating you don’t have to do this – saving you time.
2. Search Engine Optimization
With search engine robots becoming increasingly smarter every day, it is very important to create complaint code throughout your website. Reason being, if your website confuses a robot while it’s crawling, it will see this as a beginner level website, and will lower your ranking on Google. Since the validation service will make sure you have certain attributes such as an alt tag with an image, this will also double as making your website search engine friendly, user friendly, and also able to be used by the visually impaired.
3. A Validating Conclusion
Although it might take you more time to validate than not- once you understand the validation systems, you will have taught yourself the right way to code, and therefore giving you a better understanding of back-end web design in general. It will not only help the website that you are working on become more  accessible, but will also act as a benefit to the programmer in the long run.

1. Cross Browser Compatibility

By validating your website, it gives you the confidence that it will look the same in all browsers. It’s actually simple compared to going to Browser Shots every time to see how your website looks, just to dial it in. Or even downloading a ton of browsers, and then testing them individually. My point, by validating you don’t have to do this – saving you time.

2. Search Engine Optimization

With search engine robots becoming increasingly smarter every day, it is very important to create complaint code throughout your website. Reason being, if your website confuses a robot while it’s crawling, it will see this as a beginner level website, and will lower your ranking on Google. Since the validation service will make sure you have certain attributes such as an alt tag with an image, this will also double as making your website search engine friendly, user friendly, and also able to be used by the visually impaired.

3. A Validating Conclusion

Although it might take you more time to validate than not- once you understand the validation systems, you will have taught yourself the right way to code, and therefore giving you a better understanding of back-end web design in general. It will not only help the website that you are working on become more  accessible, but will also act as a benefit to the programmer in the long run.

Validate your HTML / XHTML

Validate your CSS stylesheet


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