PAE - Ethical Issues in Web Design and Web Standards [LESSON]
Ethical Issues in Web Design and Web Standards
Ethical Issues in Web Design
In the early days of the Internet, websites consisted of text-based information. Since that time, websites have been enhanced with multimedia and other enhancements to make interaction possible. Because of these developments, guidelines are needed so no laws are violated. Many established web design companies have a Code of Web Ethics so clarification is provided on the web designer's responsibility to clients, the web designer's responsibility to the public, fees, and basic conduct and contractual guidelines. Meeting the requirements for accessibility, having knowledge of Copyright Law, and having insight into privacy regulations must be acquired so ethical issues are not encountered.
Accessibility
The website you create must be accessible to everyone. Discussions about accessibility issues should be held during the planning process to ensure equal access is available to all features on the website. Visually impaired individuals use a screen reader to gain understanding of images that are displayed on the website, therefore alternate text must be coded when images are uploaded to the website to allow this. If a member of your target audience has a hearing impairment, providing a transcript of an audio file will provide her/him with the information needed to understand the message shared on the web page.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) international standard is a set of documents that explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. These guidelines are developed by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). These guidelines should be followed when developing a website. They should be referenced prior to and during development.
Please review the Accessibility learning object below to learn more about website accessibility.
Copyright
Did you know that once you create a work it is automatically protected under Copyright Law? Violation of copyright occurs when you use images or other works without obtaining the permission of the originator of the work. It is a good practice to include, as part of your web design team, a graphic designer and web content specialist so that work created is original or obtained properly.
Click here for more information on copyright. Links to an external site.
If the link does not work, please contact your teacher.
Privacy
It is ethical to respect the privacy of others, but as owners of websites permit third-parties to post ads on their websites, information can be obtained from users and sold to outside agencies. As you meet with your client, it may be helpful to remind the executives of this fact. As the web developer, you may obtain information about the organization that competitors would find valuable. It is important that you not disclose any information that should be kept private. It will also benefit you to understand the terms of the non-compete clauses indicated in the contract since some clauses extend beyond the time the website has been published.
The decisions you make as a web developer can have long-term consequences for your career. For that reason, you should think through each decision before taking action.
Take a moment to complete the Ethical Issues Self-Assessment below.
Web Standards
Web standards are the technologies we use to build websites. These standards exist as long technical documents called specifications, which detail exactly how the technology should work. These documents are intended to be used by software engineers to implement these technologies (usually in web browsers).
For example, the HTML Living Standard (HTML5) describes exactly how HTML (all the HTML elements and their associated APIs, and other surrounding technologies) should be implemented. HTML is the language that the web is written in; it stands for Hypertext Markup Language and was developed by a Ph.D. student, Tim Berners-Lee. There have been several versions of HTML, starting in 1991 with HTML 1.0 through 1999 with HTML 4.0, which was the standard until 2014 when HTML 5.0 was released. We now use the HTML Living Standard, which is HTML 5, but it is constantly being updated, so there is no expectation of an HTML 6.
Web standards are created by standards bodies — institutions that invite groups of people from different technology companies to come together and agree on how the technologies should work in the best way to fulfill their use. The W3C is the best known web standards body, but there are others such as the WHATWG (which maintains the living standards for the HTML language), ECMA (which publishes the standard for ECMAScript, which JavaScript is based on), Khronos (which publishes technologies for 3D graphics, such as WebGL), and others. The W3C is the best-known standards body; it was created by Tim Berners Lee in 1994. They also maintain other web technologies such as CSS and JavaScript. As of 2019, WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) and W3C have worked together to develop and maintain the standards for the web.
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