Web Standards

The CoE and CAEN web sites continue to be updated to make proper use of well-established web standards such as :

• CSS
• Structured Content
• Accessibility Best Practices

Most modern web browsers such as Mozilla, Netscape, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer have increasingly good support for web standards, so users of current versions of these browsers may not even notice the changes in our website. However users of older browsers may have issues with our site due to these updates. Netscape 4.x in particular is an ancient (in web terms) web browser that is undeservedly still in relatively wide use that has terrible support for well-established standards - it's continued use frankly complicates the job of making accessible web sites. Please upgrade and help support the CoE website's move towards being more accessible and standardized.

Resources that we refer to in our quest for standards include :

• webstandards.org
  • "What are web standards and why should I use them?"
• w3c.org
  • CSS Specification
  • XHTML Specification
  • X/HTML Validator
  • CSS Validator

Web Accessibility Guidelines

We also plan to support a number of  web accessibility recommendations :

• separating content from layout (via CSS)
• avoiding usage of table elements for layout
• textual representation of non-textual content (e.g. descriptive attributes for images, video and auditory content etc..)
• tabbed navigation
• usable text-only representations of all pages

Resources that we refer to in our quest for accessibility include :

• w3c.org
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
  • CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
  • HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• diveintoaccessibility.org
  • 30 days to a more accessible web site

The Benefits

Over time we will strive to improve our support for web standards and accessibility guidelines. The benefits of this approach will include :

• a more accessible website
• a website that is easier to maintain and modify
• a more searchable site
• a more future-proof site
• a versatile site that is able to transform itself based on the viewing mode or preferences of the browser

Thank you for your support as we continue along our standards-based path to the future.  As ever, we welcome the input of our visitors and content providers.