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Web Standards, Development Firms, and Drupal

Now, I realize that, by virtue of being a web standards based developer, that I am a significant minority, but this is the first time that I have had this reality really had it crammed down my throat. =) =(

Well, at work I have been searching specifically for web standards developers for a major Drupal project. I have posted about the County’s needs on Drupal.org and on the Web Standards Group (of which I am a member), and none specifically showed their head. There were many who expressing interest in working with us, many of which were from India, which was interesting to see, but none of their business and sites said or specifically showed web standards, validation, accessibility, or usability as a priority. Most seem to be of the ‘get the contract, churn out a solution and move on to the next‘ mindset. This I found highly disconcerting.

I had quite a few firms interested in working with us and as soon as they expressed interest in our project the first thing I did is went to their business’ home page and validated it and looked at their source code, and every single time I cried and died a little bit inside. Even after that I took a look at some of their sample sites, and validated and analyzed their code… while my tears were still drying, only to cry again. On occasion I would find one site in their samples that would validate but the code was just OK.

When I responded to these firms who were interested I specifically asked for examples of their work that validate and showed a care for Semantics, Separation of Layers, Validation, as well as Accessibility and Usability. Each time the firm sent me a list of all of their sample sites, seeing that actually giving me what I wanted was not possible or they did not understand or care enough to take the time…. Annoying…. really annoying….

So, after seeing that this was the case it was a matter of finding the firm that showed the most potential (at a reasonable cost) to be able to give me the result that I want, and there were not a whole lot of options. In the end we signed up with a firm that looked like they could get the job done.

I do realize that Drupal does have strong level of decent code, but none go that extra mile that I am looking for…

I do realize now that this post is turning into a rant stemming from the fact that Web Standards Developers are a minority, so take this post for what it is worth. I feel better now.

Web Standards, Accessibility, and Usability Resources

• CSS Zen Garden
• Meyer Web (a CSS Guru)
• Web Standards Group (WSG)
• Web Standards Project (WaSP)
• Boxes and Arrows
• Human Factors International
• Web Accessibility Technical Services
• Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS)
• A List Apart
• Digital Web Magazine

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