Designing For Print (HTML Illiteracy Part 3 of 2)

One of the biggest signs that someone doesn’t know enough HTML to be flapping their yap about it — and this includes fraud peddling framework CREATORS like Otto, Thornton, and Wathan — is their unwillingness to use — or unawareness of — the HTML media=”” attribute. Much less the very concept of media targets.

In their utter illiteracy of basic HTML semantics, and throwing the entire separation of concerns in the trash, they have ended up throwing visual styling information at user-agents that flat out don’t give a flying purple fish. The “screen media f*** everyone else” attitude is even creeping into WAI specs taking a giant steaming dump on the whole situation.

To the point I now have about as much confidence in the WAI for the future of accessibility as I do the WhatWG for HTML. Which is to say none.

One of the most powerful aspects of CSS is the ability to isolate different media targets. Used properly you save bandwidth and customize to specific targets. Thus not sending screen only or print only to everyone. As I’m always saying do you really think that speech, braille, TTY, or search should give a damn about your layout and colours? Or visual trickery like modal dialogs that are just static sections of the page? (like a contact form or hamburger menu)