W3C & Accessibility

So what are W3C & Accessibility you ask? W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium, they are responsible for setting standards for the internet including how code is implemented. Various online validation is available free of charge to check your HTML, XHTML & CSS code against. This site has passed validation is therefore allowed to show the following icons as a sign of quality. Adhering to these standards makes, faster websites, that are easier to maintain and that any good coder can understand.

Accessibility is a more complex issue. It is not simply a requirement for those with disabilities to be able to view your website, but starts with good coding, so that the widest range of browsers and devices can view your site, which means the largest possible target audience.

Download powerpoint presentation on accessibility

In regard to those with disabilities, the world is full of people with minor disabilities such as long sightedness or colour blindness which can be affected if your site is not coded correctly. Those with greater disability tend to have software to deal with this and again correct coding will help assistive technology to do it’s job and of course widen your target audience.

There is also a website that will validate for accessibility, such as CYNTHIA, but there are complexities involved and only a lot of the issues of accessibility can not be checked by a machine. Standards are A,AA and AAA for further information please visit www.w3.org