An old chestnut. Standards badging is largely irrelevant to the client as they have no knowledge of or likely interest in the delivery mechanisms and markup/coding involved in development of a web presence. Neither too has the general public. That's point 1: fair ignorance of development.
Since CSS, DTD markup compliance or WAI accessibility level badges are simply markers to recommendations and not Kite marks (like Corgi for British gas fitters, a recognised accreditation) they have no bearing on accountability or fitness for purpose, and their adoption is, at best, an indication that developers and, possibly, clients recognise best practice in the industry. That's point 2: no accountability in law or to a peer group. Where badging does kick in and I believe justifiably so is with inter-industry peer pressure and as a prompt for unclued wannabe developers to investigate further. A couple of years ago I had no idea what web standards or accessibility were about; I now know better. Part of the trigger was the use of badges on certain sites I happened upon. To the initiated, badges are often looked upon with smug derision; we don't need 'em cuz we're cool. Ivory tower syndrome. Don't get smug. I badge because I want fledgling developers to ask questions of and be a party to standards development. These are the guys we need to have commit to standards-compliant accessible development, as we do their tutors in educational establishments. A top down approach to development, a commitment by governments to sanction businesses who do not take 'reasonable efforts' to ensure their sites are accessible is a welcome - though largely toothless - effort towards recognising a moral requirement toward the rights of impaired web users. But until these sanctions are imposed with a fervour, which they won't because of the legal minefield involved when challenging *recommendations* not development *standards* (and the woolliness of the legislation), it's necessary to adopt a bottom up, critical mass approach. Until we, as an industry, are accredited with an internationally recognised set of development standards, which will mean formal exams toward formal qualifications, the best we can expect is to have wannabe developers look to us for guidance. That can start with a couple of badges on a site. Mike Pepper Accessible Web Developer Internet SEO and Marketing Analyst [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.visidigm.com Administrator Guild of Accessible Web Designers [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gawds.org ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
