It’s that time of the year to show your support for web standards on November 30, the international celebration of Blue Beanie Day.
Web designers, developers, content strategists, user experience professionals, accessibility specialists—folks involved with creating, publishing, and coding on the web—will celebrate Blue Beanie Day by sharing a photo of themselves or updating their avatar with a blue beanie.
Blue Beanie Day reminds us all of the importance of web standards and creating accessible websites.
What is Blue Beanie Day?
Launched in 2006, Blue Beanie Day is named for the blue beanie worn by Jeffrey Zeldman on the front cover of his Designing with Web Standards book.
It was one of the first books to introduce web designers to accessible web design and creating websites that everyone can use.
Across all browsers.
Zeldman was one of several designers in the web standards movement who regularly wrote, taught, and published websites/articles to raise awareness of semantic code and best practices to design usable, accessible sites.
Learn about the Web Standards Project, the grass roots group of web professionals focused on fighting for standards “which ensured simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.”
Note: the group launched in 1998, disbanded in 2013.
How You Can Spread the Word About Web Standards
Take the lead in reminding people to develop websites with web standards.
- Update your social media avatar or your website About page portrait to include a photo of you wearing a blue beanie, hat, or a scarf.
- Use the #BlueBeanieDay hashtag on social networks to share your support and show off your avatar.
- If you have a blog, publish a post about web standards, what you’ve learned, or how you use web standards on the sites you create.
Don’t have a blue beanie or hat to wear?
Download the blue beanie Photoshop zip file (45KB PSD).
Learn Web Standards
While Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards book is still available for purchase, its focus is on web standards and practices from the mid-2000’s.
Check out these current resources for learning about web standards:
- The Web and Web Standards from MDN Web Docs
- Web Standards: The What, the Why, and the How by Amy Dickens
- Web Standards & Happy Blue Beanie Day! [seven-minute video] by my colleague Eric Eggert
Hope you’ll join me in celebrating Blue Beanie Day on November 30, 2022!
