Standards Compliance In Website Design.
Why have we let the policies of one company dictate to us that we will not be responsible professionals and insist on being standards compliant?
What would you do if an electrician didn’t insist on making your home or office standards compliant? Would you accept that standards are not to be met? Or would you insist on the standards being met?
I assume that we all would insist on the standards being met.
So why have we let one companies policy of ignoring standards dictate that we cannot be responsible professionals and create standards compliant websites?
I would suggest that the next time someone asks for a non standards compliant website to be designed, that we insist that they sign a legally binding document stating that they are accepting full responsibility for any damages incurred by visitors to their site due to data loss, virus, phishing, or any other means.
If they won’t sign this document, then they will only get standards compliant website.
We are the professionals, so we are the ones that have to take the responsibility into our own hands for meeting the standards of our profession.
It’s all well and good to say that we have to make sure that everyone can visit the website. But that is pure fud.*
It’s the responsibility of the browser developers to make the browsers standards compliant. If we don’t make compliant sites the norm, then they have to incentive to make the browsers compliant.
So, that leads to the question:
What is the standard for website design?
According to the w3c, it’s xml and xhtml.
Since the World Wide Web Consortium is the de facto body in charge of setting web standards, their standard is the one we should be meeting.
* fud used instead of ” unadulterated bullsh|t”
