In a recent article, IAllenkelhet.no (Norwegian) claims that a survey conducted last year revealed that while 90% of us expect web developers to have expert knowledge about HTML, a mere 35% of the developers actually do. Even fewer know much about WAI or WCAG.

Unfortunately, this is probably very close to the truth.

I believe that it might be due to the fact that many developers are highly trained and skilled professionals, for example computer scientists, software engineers, etc. Having a degree, they are expected to just “know” such a simple thing as HTML.

Sure, most probably understand the concept of opening and closing tags (although many fall short), but I doubt the majority has ever looked up the HTML spec. at W3.org, or know how to use the elements specified by the standard. Probably because HTML is considered too simple — i.e. not that interesting.

But if you aren’t interested in learning about how to use the available tools, you shouldn’t be working with them.

</rant>