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The Web Guidelines quality regulation
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The normative document contains criteria for the evaluation of web sites in conformance with the Dutch Government Web Guidelines and in complete conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 priority 1 and 2 checkpoints. The Web Guidelines have been developed by the Dutch government in order to improve the quality and accessibility of web sites following international guidelines.
Since the summer 2006 decision of the Dutch government that each new government web site and each existing web site should meet the Web Guidelines by no later than 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Quality Mark drempelvrij.nl have jointly aimed at developing a quality regulation Web Guidelines. The quality regulation contains one transparent normative and evaluative regulation on the basis of the 125 web guidelines originating from the Decision Quality of government web sites, which fully covers the WCAG 1.0 priority 1 and 2. For the purpose of the quality regulation a normative document and a document sampling and caesura Web Guidelines are being developed.
The Web Guidelines consist of rules for building high-quality web sites. The aim is to improve the quality of web sites in such a way that information and services can be used by all individuals, companies, browsers and search engines. An important means in achieving this goal is the proper use of open standards.
In 2004, reinforcing the principalhood of government organizations was the main important reason to have the Web Guidelines developed. When ordering the building of a web site one can include the condition that the product to be delivered should meet the Web Guidelines. Apart from an extensive specification, tools are made available by which it can be checked afterwards whether the condition has been met. Following this process will guarantee the accessibility of the web site to be delivered.
Features of web sites that satisfy the Web Guidelines include the increase in speed of web sites, content easier to be traced in search engines, peak load better to be controlled, easy reuse of web sites (in the light of Multi-channel applications) and lower administration costs.
The normative document is meant to make it easier and a more objective task to render Web Guidelines measurable. This is achieved by providing the checkpoints together with descriptions, definitions, references and examples. The structure chosen for this document is one that matches the accessibility guidelines for web sites by the W3C Consortium (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1.0, priority 1 and 2). A web site that meets the Web Guidelines, will at the same time meet the international guidelines for accessibility and therefore be eligible for the Quality Mark drempelvrij.nl.
Please contact Marijke van Grafhorst, on [email protected] or by phone +31 (0)35 624 52 89, for more information on the development of the quality regulation Web Guidelines.