The first change that should have happened long ago was serving up real XHTML (content=application/xhtml+xml). This site is now XHTML 1.1 in modern browsers, with old fashioned SGML tag-soup being fed to lesser equipped browsers. I’ve nervously decided to also serve all my posts and comments as XML, which means that one bad bit of code in a comment will bring on the Yellow Screen of Death for the whole post. That was never going to last long!

Not Everyone Uses a Mouse

Too often designers/developers set link styling for a:link, a:visited and a:hover, and think that is enough. That is not enough. Many users, myself included, like to ditch the mouse while reading a long article and navigate via the keyboard (*gasp*! What is this, 1986?!). Jumping from link to link using the tab key is fast and easy, but irresponsible design decisions can make the experience akin to driving blind. Try it out now.

No problems, because I have set visual changes on the :focus pseudo-class. That’s all well and good, until IE comes to the party. IE doesn’t support :focus, but in traditional IE style one of its bugs can be played against another. In this instance it is the :active pseudo-class that comes to the rescue. Microsoft decided to interpret :active as :focus, meaning that any changes set on :active will be applied when that link receives focus.

Automated Testing – Home Delivered Lies

As a standard practice, I run my sites through the Cynthia and Bobby automated accessibility tests. The results for Left Justified are quite good, with only a minor warning or two in the Priority 3 (WAI-AAA) section.
What a crock.
I know for a fact that I don’t even meet all the Priority 2 requirements.

3.4 Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values. [Priority 2]

That alone is enough to disqualify Left Justified from anything higher than a WAI-A rating. Yet if I wanted to, I could stick up a big ugly “Bobby AAA” button and have it link to a positive test result – but I won’t, because being a responsible web designer/developer/person (I’m using the term web person from here on in) means that automated tests are just that — a test. It’s nowhere near an equivalent to human testing, let alone a replacement.

So now all of the T’s are crossed and i’s are dotted, where are the XHTML 1.1 and CSS buttons on the footer of every page? Not here, folks.

Validity isn’t an accomplishment, it’s a requirement.