Almost nobody pays attention to web standards anymore
Screen readers suffer as nearly 90% of top websites tested contain HTML spec violations
A recent study reveals that many popular websites are disregarding web standards, as assessed by a French developer. Of the 5,000 most frequently visited sites, over half—2,656—serve pages readable by humans. However, most of these sites, including tech giants like Google and EZVIZ, neglect proper HTML, according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the WHATWG specifications.
Out of the 100,305 HTML violations identified, 87.2 percent of sites have at least one error. Only a mere 2.6 percent of all sites are entirely free of errors and warnings. Furthermore, accessibility issues are also a concern, with 41.6 percent of pages lacking necessary ARIA labels, which could hinder screen readers' ability to interpret the page's structure.
While some may view sloppy HTML as inconsequential, it can pose significant challenges for AI agents, voice assistants, translation tools, and screen readers, potentially leading to misunderstandings and accessibility barriers.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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