Web Standards, Accessibility & More

The topic has resurfaced on blogs and Twitter recently: is code validation necessary? Well, yes and no.

Complete HTML (and CSS) validation is a great goal, but 100% validation is not crucial nor necessary. Browsers will usually correct and render markup that’s poor quality. This good because it give the user the best experience. But it’s bad in the long run because it encourages developers to not pay attention to code validation and web standards.

Web experts seem to agree that code validation is important and necessary to a certain extent, but for somewhat different reasons. In Nicholas Zakas’ article listed below, he states that correct syntax and nesting are most important aspects of valid code. Chris Heilmann points out that part of the issue is human error; people misinterpret the results. And Bruce Lawson summed it up 6 years ago by stating that validation is “a means” of proper web development rather than “an end”. These are all valid points.

Today, it seems the majority of web developers and designers still aren’t paying enough attention to valid code (as well as clean, progressively enhanced, semantic markup). And until they do (and realize this is the best practice), the community as a whole will continue to debate over this issue. My warning is this:

If developers continue to stray away from valid code, and browsers continue to support invalid code, we’ll eventually end up in the fragmented mess that existed before web standards and code validation became mainstream a few years ago.

Do you agree?

Here are the related articles:

The value of HTML validation by Nicholas C. Zakas (August 17, 2010)

I do believe that parts of the HTML validation service are incredibly useful, but I won’t be held hostage because I’m using custom attributes. [i.e. ARIA]

validate() || dont() by Chris Heilmann (August 17, 2010)

Most of the issues of validation are not about validating or the tools – it is about people misinterpreting the results. As there is such a gap between the standards and what browsers can do some errors being flagged up should be exceptions and not flagged up as show-stoppers.

CSS/ xhtml: does validation matter? by Bruce Lawson (November 21, 2004)

But no client has ever demanded that the pages validate – itself a sign that validation is a means rather than an end.

Last week (July 29 2010), I presented the session “Twitter and Web Accessibility” at the Assistive Technology Conference hosted by the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

It was my first time in Indy, strange since I grew up only a 5-hour drive away in the Detroit suburbs. Except the humid weather and lousy flight delays on the way home, it was a great experience! It was great meeting the organizer of the event, Sara Croft, and running into the keynote speaker, John Bramblitt, at the airport. In addition to the excellent keynote speech by John, a highlight of the conference was an accessible gaming arcade provided by the AbleGamers Foundation. My presentation went well, and had a great conversation with a few visually-impaired users afterwards. Oh, and I took some photos of downtown Indianapolis.

Here’s my presentation below, a SlideShare link and embedded SlideShare Flash version. Or, go to the (text-only) HTML version.

Tennis (Wimbledon)

Congrats to Rafael Nadal (Spain) & Serena Williams (U.S.) for winning the Wimbledon singles titles. Too bad Andy Roddick (U.S.) lost prematurely in the fourth round. But he continues to be ranked in the world’s top 10, so can’t  complain. I’m glad Roger Federer didn’t win, or even make it to the finals, he’s won enough already!

Soccer (World Cup)

Great to see the United States make it to the second round of the World Cup. The world-famous soccer tournament was more meaningful for me this year, not because of my country’s improved performance, but mostly because of so many international friends on Twitter! I watched a couple matches at home, and I also watched a game at lunch with some co-workers which was pretty fun. On a related note, here’s an article on use of the World Cup in the social media.

Basketball (NBA)

I was really hoping the Boston Celtics would beat the L.A. Lakers for the NBA championship. It was a good series, and the title came down to the end of game 7. I’m not a fan of Los Angeles, and the celebration riots sure didn’t change my opinion. Embarrassing for my state, as well as the country.

Hockey (NHL)

So the Chicago Blackhawks won the NHL title this year. The playoff series most interesting to me of course was the San Jose Sharks (where I live) versus the Detroit Red Wings (where I’m from). I was sticking to my hometown roots and rooted for Detroit, but they lost 4 games to 1 even though Detroit scores more goals over the series.

Baseball (MLB)

Not too much into baseball lately, but last I checked, my hometown Detroit Tigers are doing fairly well. I have seen one San Francisco Giants and one Oakland Athletics baseball game since I moved to the Bay area three years ago. I like the Detroit stadium best.

Golf (?)

I play golf once every year or so with my brother, but I don’t follow the professionals. I find it quite boring on TV.

What’s up with me?

I recently published a great new podcast on Web Axe, HTML5 and John Foliot (a transcript is also provided). I interview John Foliot, a professional peer whom I also consider a friend. John shares he extensive knowledge in HTML5, the W3C, and web accessibility. He works at Stanford University and is an active member of the W3C.

Lists functionality is completed on AccessibleTwitter.com, finally. It’s been in progress for like half a year! Just need to add some Ajax to enhance the experience now. But for the next month, I’ll be busy working on converting the Basic Authentication to Open Auth. Fun. By the way, Accessible Twitter experienced some site outages a few weeks ago, but it seems to be resolved. Remember that unsetting your PHP variables is always a good idea! Ugh.

So I’ve become a pretty regular FourSquare user. I’m proud to be the “mayor” of the Starbucks close to my day job, in Redwood Shores, California. No biggie, although I do get $1 off a frappaccino at any time. Although I’m not big on frappaccinos; too bad it’s not a discount on espressos con panna!

Steve Jobs recently published an open letter about Apple’s position on Flash which addressed the reasons behind not implementing Flash on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. It’s very well written and has some great points, but contains many flaws as well. Apple is a great design company, and I understand they are indeed a company and must look out for their own interest; but that doesn’t excuse the act of misinforming and misleading people.

One of the first responses to the letter was by Remy Sharp (@rem) who pointed out that:

1. HTML5 apps won’t just work with touch devices, the code to handle touch events must still be written.
2. The H.264 video format is currently supported only by Safari and Chrome, but H.264 is not supported by the two biggest browsers, IE and Firefox.

Remy’s tweet also points us to this video of a presentation from Jonathan Stark, App Store is For Suckers. Stark points out some not-so-good points about the Apple Store including the fact that they subjectively turn down many apps which applied to be in the store. For example, there are many games which including war and killing of animals, but a seal-clubbing app from PETA was rejected. (In response, PETA Sends Steve Jobs Vegan Chocolate Seals!)

Web accessibility veteran and friend John Foliot of Stanford University tweeted these six “fallacies” from the letter:

1. The H.264 video format is closed & patent encumbered — not open.
2. WebKit is not the most widely deployed mobile browser; that belongs to Opera.
3. HTML5 is not finished & W3C anticipates a few more years before Ready For Prime Time.
4. WHAT WG (the incomplete HTML5) is not open either, it’s by invitation only: whatwg.org/charter
5. Two of the four major browsers do not support H.264. [see above]
6. If Apple is so open, why do they control IApp distribution with an iron fist? They don’t like your app? You’re toast. [see above]

What do you think?

Further reading:

• The Wall Street Journal’s Exclusive Interview With Adobe CEO
• Thoughts on Apple vs. Adobe
• The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash

A couple weeks ago I took the family to visit my old high school friend Anthony and his family in McKinleyville, California. It was quite an adventure!

The drive up was good, and not quite as far as first expected, about 6 hours or so from South Bay. We made a short stop to drive thru a tree, literally. I learned there’s a few trees where you can actually do this; we visited the Chandelier tree (below). Then, a little later up the highway, we saw a Bigfoot crossing sign.

Our hosts were great, and they sure showed us the outdoor classics of Humboldt county (not the marijuana though, sorry to disappoint!). But first, on the night we arrived, my friend took me out for beers with his buddies from work: about ten professors from nearby Humboldt State University. They were definitely not reserved as one might expect, but quite the opposite; fun, goofy, beer-pounding guys. And I guess I live in “Central California”, as the locals there claim that area of the state the true “Northern California”.

The highlight of the visit was probably walking through the giant redwood forest in the Redwood National Park. My kids pretended they were Ewoks, creatures from the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. Many of the trees are very very wide, about 300 feet tall, and can be 1,000 years old. We saw numerous large yellow slugs called banana slugs (yuck!)

We spent an afternoon in Arcata, a groovy hippie town which is home to the university. Lots of great coffee, organic food, and free spirits. The farmers market in downtown Arcata was fun, even had a bluegrass band. One ingenious woman sat on the curb with a typewriter and a sign that read “Poem Store“.

We also did some light hiking and walked along a few beaches, and even saw a bunch of seals hanging out on a sand bar. A couple swam pretty close to us, too.

We stayed overnight on the long journey home as we drove south down the coast on Highway 1 (rather than 101 as on the way up). We stopped at a couple of cool little towns, Fort Bragg and Mendocino. We stayed at cabin which was fair, but was totally worth it due to a hot tub overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The four of us took a nice, scenic dip in our underwear!

The next day we drove by some cows, and had a great brunch at fine place called Alexander’s. We crossed the Golden Gate on the way home and, even with as much fun as we had, were glad to be back home in Cupertino.

I took the family on a return visit to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, California (only a 1 1/2 hour drive). Picture of wife and kids at Jelly Belly. Also went to the newly re-opened Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose. It’s very nice, and we’ll definitely go back soon. Picture of my boys on the Frog Hopper ride. (And we’re off to Humboldt later this week!)

In late March, I attended the CSUN conference in downtown San Diego (Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference). I co-presented one session with Joseph O’Connor, Accessibility of Twitter for Mobile, Desktop and Web. It was a great learning experience, and I also met many great folks who I know from the web, especially Twitter. I also spoke at the CSUN Tweetup. Check out my Flickr album from CSUN 2010.

More recently, I was interviewed for a BlindMind.net podcast: Interview with Dennis Lembree, creator of AccessibleTwitter.com & author of web accessibility blog Web Axe.

View from Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel during the CSUN conference in San Diego, California. March 2010.