Anyone know a source of stats for CSS usage?

Hi,

Does anyone know a source of reliable estimates just how many browsers are
out there that are so old they don't recognize CSS? Judging by multi-
national corporations' pages like PayPal & AOL, the number is so close to
zero as makes no difference.

Any input will be appreciated.

Ozzy

 

The number would be so insignificantly small as to be a non-issue.

What would sites like that have to do with browser CSS usage? None, that
I can think of.

CSS is the way to design pages, in this century (and part of the last).

 

Of course such sites have nothing to do with browser usage, directly. I
paid attention to their pages because I was naive enough to imagine that
the vast numbers of people who use them would necessitate their taking
into account people who have stastically uncommon setups.

Actually, CSS usage is an issue for me, because of a project I have
undertaken, writing a website for an Independent Living Center. These
programs, which reach out to the disabled (who are by and large poor --
being disabled is an expensive hobby) who are very likely to have just
such PC owners in their ranks, if any exist. The question is, do they
exist in significant numbers?

Ozzy

 

Commercial web sites are sadly a very bad guide as to how to cater for
'minorites'; unless they are operated from a country that enforces
'accessibilty' on web site design, there is no reason for a company to
make its web sites accessible to any particular sub-set of potential users
unless they consider that sub-set to be sufficiently profitable to make it
worth the effort. Even banks and government departments often fail to
make their sites compliant with current standards or properly functional
with all current web browsers, let alone usable by 'disabled' users.

If you're the poor person still using Windows 3 on a x386 machine to get to
the internet, then the number 100% springs to mind as far as 'how many are
still using an old web browser' is concerned.

There are also recent and even current web browsers that aren't able to
cope well with all the graphical and multi-media bloat and 'new features'
that afflict too many web sites; some browsers are built to be small and
simple, and others allow the user to set them up to suit their own
disabilities and preferences, or are used in conjunction with other
software such as a 'screen reader'. (And then there are the browsers from
Microsoft, of course <WEG>). Opera allows the user to enforce their own
personal CSS on any or all web sites visited.

If you are aiming your web site design at people who can't see, for
example, you should seek the advice of blind users; likewise for any other
disability. Apart from that, keep it simple and make sure your designs
pass 'validation' at <http://www.w3.org/>.

You might find <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)> and
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/> interesting as a starting point for further
research.

 

Your assumption is correct, actually. Busy sites such as the ones you
mention will /possibly/ work in older, non-conforming browsers, but
those who use such tools are probably quite used to seeing "strange"
looking sites.

What you need to do is test your site with CSS disabled, to be sure that
it still imparts all of the information in an understandable layout.
This is done with good semantic HTML markup. Try this browser,
http://offbyone.com/
and if your pages are still presented in a readable manner, you have
solved most of your goal.

You also should not use JavaScript for anything important, probably more
important than using CSS or not.

For kicks, I looked at amazon.com with OffByOne. While I didn't try to
buy anything, it does appear to be useable/accessible with this browser.

Sure, there is still a small percentage of old hardware out there
accessing the web. The logs from my several sites show less than 1%
using antiquated browsers, though. Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5 is even
disappearing. Netscape 4.x is non-existent (one or two every couple of
months).

You could post in alt.html and give a link to your current efforts for
critique, if you wish.

 

Many thanks, guys, for your answers and the resources you recommend. I
have just installed ob1.exe, and it shocked me to see how a couple of my
commercial pages looked!

Ozzy

 

The thought occurs to me that web tv might be such a method. I Don't
know either way of course as I've never used it, but it *is* a poor mans
internet.

 

Agreed.