Week 4: Web Standards

This week we looked at web standards particularly in relation AX. Not the most interesting area in HCI in my opinion but very much a necessary area for correct practice. The main focus in the talk was on WCAG, guidelines for website design. Breaking these guidelines is not illegal, but it is considered unlawful. In other words sufferers from unlawful practice can take the offenders to court. Luckily this hasn't happened in the UK, but in the suing culture of the USA there have been several cases. I think there needs to be a better way of enforcing web standards, which doesn’t involve hundreds of unnecessary law suits that cost disabled peoples' and organizations' time, and tax payers money. If for example following good web standards (recognized by an algorithm) placed websites higher in search results, then the web site designers would be positively reinforced to comply with such standards. Also web standards such as WCAG 1 are criticised for being too specific and are uncontextual to the variety of practical issues in developing usable and accessible websites. Researchers such as Sloan et al. (2006) have proposed more flexible frameworks such as the 'Tangram' model (a puzzle with many solutions), and 'Blended learning' approaches that take each disability as a specific learning style to tackle. Ultimately web standards are important, particularly with the rise in web use over the past decade, and it is important that standards are implemented so that they are fair to both users and developers!