Q. As a client do you care if your website is W3C valid?
A. Probably not, however you should...
What is Web Standards Validation?
Technically, Web Standards Validation ensures that the content (e.g. XHTML) and the presentation (CSS) that make up a web page comply with the W3C recommendations.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international industry consortium dedicated to developing de facto standards on the web.
Many sites (including this one) have links on their pages that advertise that they are valid, e.g.
Valid: XHTML | CSS | Bobby AAA
Why Validate?
- To save time & money in developing and testing your site in all browsing devices.
- To ensure that your site will be accessible to all current and future browsing devices:
- Web Browsers
- PDAs
- Mobile Phones
- Web TV
- Screen Readers
- Search Engines
Validation isn't a holy grail. Validation 'helps to ensure' your pages work in all browsing devices. Testing in as many devices as possible is still essential.
Further Information
- W3C
(http://www.w3.org/Consortium/) - W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
(http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG10/) - W3C XHTML Validator
(http://validator.w3.org) - W3C CSS Validator
(http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/) - Bobby Accessibility Checker
(http://bobby.watchfire.com)
Glossary of Terms
- Bobby AAA
- Bobby is a comprehensive web accessibility software tool designed to help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines.
- Browsing Device
- Anything that allows you to access web pages on the Internet, e.g. a web browser such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, a PDA, or a Screen Reader.
- CSS
- Cascading Style Sheet - Defines the presentation of content (e.g. size, colour, font) on a Web page.
- PDA
- Personal Digital Assistant - a handheld computing device.
- Screen Reader
- A screen reader interprets content into a different format, e.g. speech or electronic Braille.
- Search Engine
- A facility that allows users to search and retrieve specific information from the World Wide Web, e.g. Google
- Web Browser
- Software that allows you to access web pages on the Internet, e.g. Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
- XHTML
- Extensible Hypertext Markup Language - used to markup content for web pages.
- W3C
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international industry consortium dedicated to developing de facto standards on the web.