1. Creating sustainable web-based resources: more standards Online Qualitative Data Resources: Best Practice in Metadata Creation and Web Standards 15 November 2005 Nadeem Ahmad – UK Data Archive ESDS Qualidata

2. Web standards These are set by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) (X)HTML CSS Accessibility

3. Standards and accessibility Why? –clean, rule–based markup avoids errors that can make web pages fail –standard-compliant pages and style sheets: render nearly identically whatever the browser used render faster work better with search engines are more accessible to all users –benefit the web editor as well as the end user

4. Benefits An accessible website helps enables people with disabilities, people using older browsers, new technologies such as mobile devices and different platforms. Research tells us that just over 14% of the population of the UK have some form of disability (8.5m/59m. (2m visual impairment) : ONS)

5. Benefits Providing clear, consistent navigation (makes finding information easier). Understandable and clear content (encourages people to stay longer) Better organised, simpler, cleaner coding and content make pages easier for designers, developers and content authors to work with and maintain

6. Benefits Properly marked up web pages with appropriate metadata separating content from presentation is an example of the “semantic web” Search engine friendly – helps search engines attach importance to the correct part of your web site

11. ESDS & standards External Web Standards XHTML CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Accessibility (WCAG)

12. ESDS & standards Internal Web Standards Version control using Microsoft Visual Source Safe SENDA compliancy ESDS/UKDA Style Guide

13. Standards and accessibility style guide produced updated November 2005 coherence and consistency available for all ESDS and UKDA staff

14. Standards – Staying Legal? UK Legislation DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) 1995/2005 SENDA (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act) 2001 Other Acts (e.g. RRAA Race Relations Amendment Act) 1976/2000

15. All web sites The DDA tackles the discrimination which many disabled people face. The part of the DDA that states websites must be made accessible came into force on 1 October 1999 (large organisations). Since October 1 2004: All employers are now legally obliged to make all their services accessible including websites, intranets and extranets accessible.

16. Educational web sites SENDA establishes legal rights for disabled students in pre- and post-16 education. This includes courses provided by further and higher education institutions and sixth form colleges.

17. Other Legislation USA – Section 508.mobi domain names (from 2006). Developed for mobile content, requires users to adhere to W3C guidelines Australia – DDA 1992

18. Links W3C www.w3.org RNIB www.rnib.org.uk ESDS www.esds.ac.uk WaSP www.webstandards.org

19. “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of the World Wide Web)