Site updated to Microformats Value Class Pattern

It may only be a very small amendment, but I’ve just updated the HTML of this site to bring it in line with the new Microformats Value Class Pattern which has just been released as an alpha draft.

The two main benefits of this new pattern are:

1. Making it easier to publish machine-readable data while displaying something on the screen that is more human-friendly or sometimes more location specific, as is the case in the one of the examples from the site:

      <p class='tel' lang='en-gb'>
       <span class='type'>
         <span class='value-title' title='cell'> </span>
           mobile
         </span>
       <span class='value'>+44 7773 000 000</span>
     </p>
     

   This would be particularly useful when marking up hCards including phone numbers where you might use words or abbreviations that don’t fit the Microformats pattern.

2. After what seemed like an interminable debate, the Microformats and Accessibility communities have come up with a solution to the accessibility problems involved with the Date Design Pattern which makes use of the <abbr> element.

   For those who haven’t followed it, this has been a huge debate over the last few years, with the Accessibility community’s concerns being heeded by the BBC who removed Microformats from their programme guides.

   I haven’t followed it all that closely but from what I have read, it became quite heated at times with both sides accusing the other of not listening to the other’s viewpoint, so it’s good to see that an alternative has been devised that is acceptable to everyone.