Gordon W. Ross

The World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ) , along with other groups and standards bodies, has established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. These technologies, which we call “web standards,” are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web. Designing and building with these standards simplifies and lowers the cost of production, while delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices. Sites developed along these lines will continue to function correctly as traditional desktop browsers evolve, and as new Internet devices come to market. It sounds so straightforward and makes so much sense. So what’s the problem? And why is there a Web Standards Project? Though leading browser makers have been involved in the creation of web standards since W3C was formed, for many years compliance was observed in the breach. By releasing browsers that failed to uniformly support standards, manufacturers needlessly fragmented the Web, injuring designers, developers, users, and businesses alike. Lack of uniform support for W3C standards left consumers frustrated: when using the “wrong” browser, many could not view content or perform desired transactions. Among those most frequently hurt were people with disabilities or special needs. The above information was taken from The Web Standards Project Located at www.webstandards.org