World Wide ConsortiumTim Bernes-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989, and in 1994 he and some others founded the World Wide Consortium. (a) The mission of the World Wide Consortium is "to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web (a)." This is an international organization with a variety of members making up the organization. They all have a common goal which is to make the web standardized with rules and principles, and to date they have made over eighty recommendations. (a) The World Wide Consortium has three long-standing objectives. These must provide universal access, a semantic web and a network of trust. Universal access means “making the Web accessible to all by promoting technologies that take into account the great differences in culture, language, education, skills, material resources, access devices and physical limitations of users across all continents (a)”. Semantic Web means creating a software setup that allows everyone to use the resources accessible on the World Wide Web. Web of Trust means “guiding the development of the Web with careful consideration of the new legal, commercial and social issues raised by this technology ( to)." In this article I will limit my discussion to universal access and the issues surrounding it. To help advance the three goals, the consortium also developed three web design principles. These principles are interoperability, evolution and decentralization. For the web to have interoperability, a user must be able to use whatever hardware or software they want and still be able to access what's on the web. When someone adds something to the web they need...... middle of paper ......ortium and I knew nothing about the World Wide Consortium. It's good to know that there is a dedicated group that sets guidelines and recommendations for achieving universal access to the Web, ensuring that Web software is compatible with all users and makes the Web a reliable way of doing business. I believe that this organization is helping the Internet to grow continuously and successfully, and without this organization the Internet would probably not be as useful as it can be. People would probably just do what they feel like doing. I now realize how important it is to really think about a lot of issues when designing a website to make it accessible to everyone. Building a website today doesn't simply mean designing one, but also thinking about how everyone will be able to access it, regardless of the language they speak, their age or if they have a disability..