Malarkey has just posted a fine summery of the pitfall of the various “badges” that currently litter a lot of “standards compliant” websites. You know the ones – they point to the various validators.
A few pitfalls are identified –
- They’re pointless if your site doesn’t quite validate for whatever reason (which is subjective with the accessibility validators anyway)
- They offer the Average Joe absolutely no explanation as to what they’re about. Instead, they just plonk them in a highly confusing, jargon-filled site.
He then offers a far better solution – link to an internal page that explains what the buttons mean. That way, you can still claim your site validates while actually informing people what it means.
It’s a solution I agree with – expect to see it in use here shortly.