Making Websites Accessible
Contents
The World Wide Web Consortium is the major international non-profit organization that establishes web standards. When your website is W3C compliant, it means your website functions as it’s supposed to across all the major browsers, search engines can crawl and index your content easily, and users can easily navigate your site. Along with the W3C, The rules in web development are constantly changing. Imagine That is committed to staying current with W3C standards. Contact us today for a free accessibility analysis of your website.
What is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)?
In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee (the true inventor of the World Wide Web) left his job at the European Organization for Nuclear Research to form the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The goal was to have an independent, international organization that would establish standards and best practices in web development. Ultimately, our goal is to build websites that perform.
Why Should I Care About W3C Compliance?
Using a CMS for your website that stays current with web programming standards means your website is always up-to-date and providing users with a good experience. If you have no CMS or use one that does not regularly update itself, your website will become incompatible with browsers overtime and it may cease to work completely. While no CMS is perfect, a good CMS strives to generate as few W3C errors as possible.
What are W3C Compliance Standards?
When your website is W3C compliant, it means users have the same experience whether they view your site on Safari, Chrome, or FireFox. While each browser has its own peculiarities that make it proprietary to the company that owns it, the major browsers adhere closely to W3C standards. The changes to these standards, the ever-increasing demands of users, and changes in Internet technologies are behind the constant revision of browsers.
How Does W3C/ADA Compliance Impact My Marketing
Having a website that is W3C compliant helps the user experience in the following ways:
- Improves Accessibility for Blind Users. A website that meets W3C accessibility specifications means visually impaired users can use “readers” to access the content on the website. This is important because federal courts ruled that businesses could be sued if their ecommerce websites are not accessible to the blind. (http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/target-case-study).
- Improves Accessibility for Search Engine Spiders. Since search engine spiders are “blind”, meeting accessibility standards mean they can easily crawl your website and index its content. This can improve your ranking in search results.
- Improved User Experience (UX). A website that meets W3C standards just performs better, adding to the quality of your customer’s online experience.
Lots of factors play into a well designed website. One of those is W3C compliance. Imagine That will build a W3C/ADA compliant website for your business that will meet best practices in web development. Contact us today for a quote on your project.
