What it is
HTML, HyperText Markup Language, is the standard markup for web pages. It describes the structure and meaning of content: headings, paragraphs, links, forms, tables and media. Browsers read it to build the page, and screen readers and search engines read it to understand what the page is about and how its parts relate to each other.
Tim Berners-Lee created it for the first web, and today WHATWG maintains it as a living standard. Good semantic HTML is the base of accessibility: a page built with the right elements in the right order works with a keyboard and a screen reader before any script runs, and it loads fast on slow connections.
How I use it
- Built the Zero Cut Tax Disability Society site pro bono: twelve hand-written pages, no framework and no third-party requests.
- That site is held to WCAG 2.2 AA, with a Content Security Policy that blocks outside fonts, analytics and trackers.
- Delivered several hundred websites across thirty years and a wide range of technologies.
- The white-label preview on this site is built in HTML with sample data, not a screenshot of a real account.
Plain HTML is the right tool when a site is mostly content and has to load fast on an old phone over a slow connection. I reach for it first on small sites because there is nothing to patch and nothing to break, and I keep it semantic on every build because accessibility starts there.
Questions
Can a business site be built without a framework?
Yes. The Zero Cut site is twelve hand-written HTML pages with one stylesheet. It loads fast, tracks nobody and has nothing to patch.
Do you build accessible websites?
Yes. The Zero Cut site is built to WCAG 2.2 AA, and it starts with semantic HTML so it works with a keyboard and a screen reader.