Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers

Chapter 2. Document Structure

Users often encounter compatibility problems when working with electronic documents created on different computers because the format is tied to the software and hardware used to create the document. They may not have the software required to open and work with the document. If they are able to open the file, they may find the document illegible because they don’t have the necessary fonts. The Web came into being in part to address the challenges of sharing electronic documents. HTML is a “device-independent” document format that can be read by any number of devices.

Perhaps the most fundamental attribute of a device-independent format is the ability to separate content and presentation. When content is handled separately ...