Validation

What is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)?

"In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.” By publishing open (non-proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation."

http://www.w3.org/Consortium/

What is Validation?

Validation is a process whereby web pages are checked automatically against the Document Type Definitions (DTDs) published by the W3C. The process identifies errors in layout, grammar, or syntax and ensures that the document follows the rules for the language it purports to be using.

How does validation work?

The online (or offline) validator is a computer script that retrieves the specified web page and checks all the (X)HTML code against the DTD (the set of rules) for that type of document. It then lists and explains all problems found.

Why is it important?

In simple terms, different browsers (e.g. Firefox, Netscape, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer) can and frequently do display exactly the same page differently. Further, the same browser used on different operating systems (MS Windows, Mac, Linux) will often display the page differently as well.

The browser will often make 'guesses' about how to display page content. Most of the time it will get it right, or will make 'good enough' guesses in order for the page to make sense. However, it will not always get it right leading to content that looks jumbled or just plain messy. This might not be a problem if you have no visual problems or accessibility issues - you can usually make your own guesses about how the content should look and what goes where, etc. However, for those with even simple things like colour blindness, using the web can be more problematic if the page is not constructed well.

If it's not valid, does it mean it's no good?

Absolutely not. Lots of websites do not use valid code and are perfectly useable. Validation is not an indicator of quality. Many large organisations, particularly those based around databases and relatively 'new' web technology (e.g. Amazon.co.uk) do not validate. That's probably fine if you're as big as Amazon - you may be able to lose a few visitors. Not everyone else can.

Is it harder to build websites with valid HTML?

Not really, no. A little effort may be required in appropriately labelling images, or cells in tables, for example but that aids users with accessibility needs and that can only be a good thing. Most modern web design programs will do most, if not all, of this automatically.

A Comparison of MRCPsych Sites

A comparison was made between different websites to compare whether efforts have been made to ensure compliance with web-standards using the W3C online Markup Validation Service. Only the homepage was validated but although other pages may validate correctly, the results below would suggest that this is unlikely. Results are shown below.

Please note the following:

1. The document type definition (DTD) and character encoding are taken by the validator automatically from the web page's header.
2. If a site failed according to it's own document type, a lesser type was selected. This is identified below in the table by grey text.
3. The links to the sites in the table are not to the site itself, but to the validator's response. Changes to the sites may result in changes to the results. I.e. over time, the validation status may change.

Most importantly, the validation status of the website does not indicate the quality of the information contained within it. The way that a website is built does not reflect the quality of a particular course.

Comments

The results above show that a minority of site administrators are making an effort to comply with web standards. This is to be applauded.

However, it is somewhat disappointing that some sites, such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists site fails even when 'lower' standards of compliance are set. This means that the site may not always be accessible by those with different browsers or visual impairment.