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Learning To Love the Code: HTML As a Tool in the Writing Classroom | Margaret Batschelet

Structure and Presentation

Instructors in more advanced writing classes may want to tackle other issues that are inherent in the shift to Cascading Style Sheets (for more information on the debates involved in this shift, see the section of this hypertext on A Rationale for HTML). For example, one of the real advantages of the stylesheet approach is the increase in accessibility it allows, both for users with disabilities and for users employing low-end devices and text-only browsers (for more about the legal requirements for accessibility, see Robertson).

The issue of whether to use the CSS design properties (i.e., the CSS box model) or tables for web page design has inspired a surprisingly passionate debate among web designers (see, for example, Owen Briggs' "Design Rant," published in 2001). Although the resistance to using CSS has declined as the use of older browsers has declined (see for example the discussion of converting pages to CSS positioning in the April 2003 issue of Web Page Design for Designers) some designers have maintained their opposition to the approach of the Web Standards Project in relegating older browsers to deliberately "undesigned" pages. One of my students, an experienced web designer, maintained that since five percent of the users of her site still employed Netscape 4.7, she refused to use anything other than tables in her layout. For further background on this issue, see Using CSS for Layout. Students who are experienced web users or designers can discuss these issues in connection with the larger issues of web accessibility.

Obviously, accessibility is a fundamental issue of audience, as well as a possible springboard to discussions of "digital divide" concerns and cultural insensitivity. As Steven Champeon points out, "The web is fundamentally about providing information to anyone who wants it, on any platform, in a way that is meaningful and useful to them, regardless of the opinions and aesthetic sensibilities of document authors and designers" (33). The issues revolving around Cascading Style Sheets are, in fact, writing issues, although perhaps not issues that can be broached in a beginning class. In asking students to consider these issues we are asking them to consider fundamental questions: for whom do we write and how can we make our pages available in a form that they can use? As a side benefit, we're also helping them to become more effective web page designers (and perhaps avoid some problems with Authoring Programs and Accessibility).

Using CSS for Layout

Citation Format: Batschelet, Margaret. "Learning To Love the Code: HTML As a Tool in the Writing Classroom." The Writing Instructor. 2004. http://www.writinginstructor.org/files/batschelet/ (Date Accessed).
Review Process: Margaret Batschelet's hypertext was accepted for publication following blind, peer review.