Semi-Annual Reminder to Learn and Hire for Web Standards

Alex Russell wrote a four-part series a couple weeks ago arguing that modern JavaScript-first framework-focused front-end development is costing the industry and users. Part of his conclusion for organizations:

Never, ever hire for JavaScript framework skills. Instead, interview and hire only for fundamentals like web standards, accessibility, modern CSS, semantic HTML, and Web Components. This is doubly important if your system uses a framework.

Marco Rogers made a similar case a couple months earlier, also aimed at developers:

I believe if you stick closer to core web technologies, you’ll be better able to hire capable engineers in the future without them convincing you they can’t do work without rewriting millions of lines of code.

And if you’re an engineer, you will be able to retain much higher market value over time if you dig into and understand core web technologies. I was here before react, and I’ll be here after it dies.

If you have been reading my blog long enough (and really, why?) then you may recall I was making the same argument directly to web developers ten years ago (less than a year after the Web Standards Project declared itself successful with browsers):

Learn the fundamentals. Learn HTML and CSS and how to best apply it. If it interests you enough to specialize, then be prepared to make your case when looking for a job.

Be the person who validates what everyone else on your team is building so they can stick with their preferred language and you can make sure it renders clean, valid HTML. Be the person who reviews frameworks and tools and can best guide decisions and what needs to be done to fix these third-party codebases.

Heck, you can find me expounding on this back in 2001 in a less well-explained fashion.

This is a common cycle. Web developers tire of a particular technology — often considered the HTML killer when released — and come out of it calling for a focus on the native web platform. Then they decide to reinvent it yet again, but poorly.

There are many reasons companies won’t make deep HTML / CSS / ARIA / SVG knowledge core requirements. The simplest is the commoditization of the skills, partly because framework and library developers have looked down on the basics.

Even assuming orgs don’t hire for “fit” (a combination of gatekeeping, selection bias, and confirmation bias) and instead prioritize on web standards knowledge, potential employees don’t have the fundamental education to understand the web platform. Neither higher-ed programs nor bootcamps drive a standards-first curriculum.

Organizations like Teach Access can help, but it lacks global scale, buy-in, and resources.

This buttresses the edifice of the inaccessible web. If you aren’t taught how to code a standards-based button or link or form control, then you might reinvent the wheel without understanding all the affordances you have lost.

Remember that whatever front-end library or framework or abstraction you are using today is younger than the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). React came out five years after WCAG 2.0, and it’s only ever had a passing familiarity with accessibility. It’s also one of the current culprits of our broken web that Alex Russell cites in his series above.

This was my semi-annual plea for everyone to teach, learn, and hire for the basics. So much comes for free when you do.