All of our websites conform to W3C HTML and CSS standards. We also aim to conform to W3C WAI Level Double A, wherever possible. These conformances are explained below:

W3C is the Worldwide Web Consortium for web designers. Its mission is "to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web." It has created 90 such standards to date and they are the mostly widely recognised standards for websites.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the core programming language for building websites. By conforming to the W3C standard, it means that the website's integrity is 100%. Its very much like a spell check; it makes sure that the HTML language used is correct and used in the right way.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls how a website looks. For example, the orange background, the option buttons on the left and the spacing of this main box are all CSS generated. Conforming to this standard not only ensures good programming practice but also allows the user to change the setting of the style sheet in case they have any problems with the colours, font-size or spacing of the website.

There are three levels to conforming to WCAG 1.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - Version 1.0). They are Level A, Double A and Triple A. These guidleines basically check that those users who need to use assistive technology (such as screen readers for those with a visual impairment) and those who have older computers can access as much of your site as possible. For example, an older computer may not be able to load the Javascript applet (controls website functionality) on their internet browser. To achieve Level A conformance, users should be able to access the websites information in the same way or warn the user that Javascript needs to be installed.

At MBF Website Solutions we try to conform to the Double A conformance wherever possible. This is a very high standard in accessibility; the Triple A conformance tends to compromise a websites look to those who do not need assistive technology or who have a more modern computer. However, if you feel that you would want this, we would be more than happy to explain this and conform your website to this standard for you.

To show a websites conformance to these standards, the three logos to your left can be displayed. The HTML and CSS are strict standards that have to pass a validation test. By clicking on the icon you can check this for yourself. The WCAG conformance icon is only a claim that the website conforms and is not yet a strict validation process.

For more information about W3C guidelines, please log on to www.w3.org.