Joining The Web Standards Movement
Monday June 14th 2004
It is with great joy, and an equal amount of relief, that I can declare this site as Web Standards Compliant. It validates as both XHTML 1.0 Transitional and as CSS2-compliant. The learning curve is a steep one, and doesn't seem to trickle to a low rise as you near the summit. Perhaps because there may not be a summit at all--I don't know, I haven't been able to venture above the cloud line. Sometimes I feel like I'm smack dab in the thick of it, but I certainly haven't gotten above it yet. . .
The move towards compliancy was accompanied by a few other subtle modifications to the design. When it's your own project and there is no budget, it's amazing how much time you can spend tweaking and fiddling with things. Even now as I say I'm "done," I'm really far from it, and already have plans in the wings for other enhancements to the look and functionality.
Testing isn't complete, but the site is at a healthy stage right now, so I wanted to make it live so that others may learn from it--or better yet, teach me even more that I need to know. The next step is to have my friend Connie's mother view it, who is legally blind. I am aware of a certain feature that I added with the intention of adding accessibility, but may have in fact made it less so. Truly my intension was for it to either present well visually in a CSS-compliant browser, or simply present well structurally in the non-compliant ones. I have yet to truly take into account screen readers and other accessibility devices, but it is certainly on the List and a major stepping stone towards mastering the art of creating structured, accessible, reliable, flexible, adaptable, and still beautiful websites.
CSS is no simple undertaking, but I stand firmly by the assertion that it is well worth the effort. My back-end code to my site has simplified dramatically. With the exception of my table of images (which is another thing I plan on addressing in the future), I have rid myself of cumbersome HTML forever. The structural mark-up of XHTML is refreshing, because it is not only simple (far fewer tags to mess with than in HTML 4.0 and below), but it demands that your content be well-structured. There is no need to hunt and peck for content when viewing code; it simply falls into place, one after another, in a logical flow that one would expect if it were part of a stack of print-outs.
Developing the stylesheet was the real struggle, and I have learned many, many things along the way. I feel wonderfully more confident in my understanding of how stylesheets work, although there's still much more to learn. I still haven't quite figured out the proper work-flow a team of developers & designers should follow when constructing a site built by these standards, but I'm getting closer. That's the next big-picture puzzle to unravel...