We use standards on a daily basis, often without realizing it. When we buy a light bulb, for example, we know that if we buy a screw-fitting bulb, it will fit our light fitting when we get home. Standards ensure that the bulb we buy isn’t “just as little too large” or “just a little too wide” to fit our light fitting.

Web standards pick up from the same principle. As browser manufacturers have moved toward embracing standards, the need to write a browser-specific markup has diminished. By using well-structured HTML to mark up content and CSS to control presentation, we should now be able to design one web site, and it should display consistently across standards-compliant browsers, regardless of the operating systems.

Web standards save us time as designers and allow us to sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that our carefully crafted masterpiece is accessible regardless of who’s viewing it on which browser and which platform.

If you’d like to learn about web and accessibility standards then you are in the right place because the following sites will help you with everything you need from learning  the foundation of web standards and all the way to cross-browser compatibility, html 5 demos or css validators.

Web standards and accessibility resources

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Web Standards Project

Web Accessibility in Mind

Tutorials, references, statistics, and forums

W3Schools

JavaScript Kit

The jQuery Project

HTML5 Demos

HTML5 Reset

Web Safe Font Tester

Web Style Guide

960 Grid System

HTML/XHTML code validators

W3C Markup Validator

W3C Link Checker

W3C Log Validator

WDG HTML Validator

CSS code validators

W3C CSS Validator

Browser compatibility verification

Browershots

Browser Cam