RE: HTML 4.x or XHTML for accessibility

Currently the most accessible solution is *probably* valid XHTML that is as
close as possible to also being valid HTML4.01. So if, for example, you use
lang as well as xml:lang, don't include information about any namespace
other than xhtml (not always possible with some tools), and have a space
before the / on empty elements (so older browsers treat it as a attribute
info they don't know, and ignore it), you should be on the right track.

XHTML will eventually bring many features to bear that will enable
accessibility and interoperability, but in the mean time it still isn't that
different to HTML4.01 (it still depends on DTDs, doesn't use xlink, and
other annoyances), but already some browsers will report errors rather than
guessing, which is a big help.

Received on Tuesday, 18 June 2002 06:42:36 UTC