The WWW (Wild Wild West)?

Disappearing quickly are the days of the old Wild Wild West where the only concern of a web designer was how their websites looked on a desktop computer with a big monitor, using a broadband connection, and people with disabilities were off the radar.

A website will need to function in memory-restricted, small screened wireless devices, assistive technology such as Braille readers or screen readers, and XML agents of the (not so distant) future, as well as the browsers that we use today.

Modern website communication and commerce requires sites to be developed according to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) technologies (specifications and guidelines), thus ensuring that your website will work - yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Web Standards and Why Do I Care?

Why you should care -

Too much time is spent designing around the bugs in non-standard compliant browsers and struggling to get a website to work in all the different browsers.

The designer pays the price with headaches and the customer pays the price with their pocketbook.

This problem will increase as we leave our desktops behind and access the Web from laptops, wireless devices and assistive technology for the disabled.

Save Money, Save Time, Increased Audience

Websites designed according to current web standards can decrease design and maintenance cost as well as making your website more accessible to everyone.

Usability & Accessibility

The goal for website accessibility is equality of access for the disabled. Usability impacts all users and is a measure of the effectiveness of a website.

Companies could be hit in the pocket book if their site is not useable and accessible; this could be due to lost revenue because some people cannot access your site's information or from a law suit because an employee could not do their job.

As of June of 2001, all government websites must conform to Section 508 standards and any contractor doing web development for the Federal government must conform to these standards.

Good accessibility and useability are a result of designing according to modern web standards, following accessibility guidelines and usability rules.

Tools of the Trade

1. I use the HTML editor Adobe Macromedia HomeSite,
   
   
2. the W3C HTML Validation Service,
   
   
3. the W3C CSS Validation Service,
   
   
4. and the Functional Accessibility Evaluator University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or U.S. Section 508 Guidelines.
   
   

Affiliates

FutureQuest.net

FutureQuest is a Linux/Apache Internet hosting provider. They are known for their reliability and excellent customer support.

Register.com

All my domains have been registered through Register.com. When you register your domain using them, you get some nice additional services such as Site Submit and business resources, free or at reduced rates. Register.com has been in the business of domain registration for years and are very dependable.