Content Management System (CMS) Question:
Do CMSs produce standards-compliant pages? Or accessible ones?
Answer:
This can be a real problem. As you saw with Laurence’s article on WYSIWYG editors last month, the standard of the code produced by text editors can be patchy at best. CMSs then drop that material into templates that control the layout of the rest of the page (navigation, header, footer), and often these templates are also suspect.
However, there’s no reason that many CMSs can’t produce clean pages. Wordpress, for example, is exemplary in this, but the real issue is often an awareness of standards-compliant and accessible coding in the people setting up the CMS, rather than any inherent limitation of the tool itself. That said, do make sure to do due diligence on the quality of output before going too far in a purchasing decision.
However, there’s no reason that many CMSs can’t produce clean pages. Wordpress, for example, is exemplary in this, but the real issue is often an awareness of standards-compliant and accessible coding in the people setting up the CMS, rather than any inherent limitation of the tool itself. That said, do make sure to do due diligence on the quality of output before going too far in a purchasing decision.
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