Web Design - Web Authoring / Intro to HTML: Accessibility & Validation
Sections:  Introduction  |  Section 1  |  Section 2  |  Section 3
Section Three:  Part A  |  Part B  |  Part C  |  Part D

Accessibility Evaluation and Syntax Validation

Your Role in Ensuring Accessibility

As web authors / web designers, it is your responsibility to ensure your site is accessible to all of your viewers. This accessibility comes in a couple of forms. Web accessibility - ensuring all individuals (to include those with disabilities) can access your site - is one form of accessibility you are responsible for. Another form of accessibility deals with ensuring the HTML syntax, or how the HTML is written, is correct so that viewers on all web browsers have access to your site.

To ensure your site is accessible to people with disabilities, it is important that you use appropriate HTML tags and attributes that provide information about the elements presented in your web site. Thus far in this course, you have been introduced to tags and attributes that aid viewers that might use assistive technologies. You will continue to learn about HTML elements that improve web site accessibility. You will also be introduced to web design concepts that aid in web site accessibility as well.

Furthermore, to ensure your site is fully accessible to viewers, it is important that your HTML is written correctly according to the HTML 5 standard. This will ensure your site displays correctly across web browsers.

Evaluating and Validating

So as you've learned, ensuring your site uses appropriately coded HTML is important for ensuring accessibility; however, writing/coding your web page or site is just the first step in the process. The next steps for ensuring accessibility to your site include using web accessibility evaluation tools and HTML syntax validation tools to check your page or site's accessibility.

Stop and think icon. Stop and Think

After reading about web site accessibility, you might be asking yourself:

  • If my web pages are written using appropriately coded HTML, why should I validate my web pages?

Further investigation Extend Your Understanding

Why do you validate? This is great question. Review the W3C.org's Why Validate? article for a multitude of answers to this question. In short, validating:

  • Quality Control - Validating acts as a debugging tool. Validation tools check your HTML code, identify errors, and provide the developer cues for improvement.
  • Consistency of Viewing - Browsers adhere to standard rules for the format and delivery of web content. If you want your webpages to appear the same, no matter what browser or device you are using, it's best to follow these rules.
  • Efficient Design - Validating helps to ensure efficient HTML design which helps to improve rendering and download speeds.
  • Improved Accessibility - Websites that adhere to standards-compliant HTML and CSS are more accessible to viewers.
  • Improve Search Results - While modern browsers are forgiving of HTML errors, search engine spiders are not. Search engine spiders cannot translate invalid code into something meaningful, like browsers, instead spiders pass over poorly written code which could lead to poor search engine results.
  • Demonstrates Professionalism - Creating a valid and standards-compliant website, demonstrates an increased level of professionalism. Additionally, validated webpages can display the W3C validation-approved icon to express to viewers the importance of site accessibility.
  • Industry Best Practice - Veterans in the field of web design make relatively few validation errors; they understand the importance of creating standards-based, highly accessible webpages. On the contrary, novice web designers of make a lot of errors. Validation helps beginners learn from their mistakes and develop best practice with regard to web development.

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