Five essential ingredients for a web that serves us all

Five essential ingredients of a web that serves us all Hidde de Vries, Web You Want, 17 April 2026

(here in personal capacity)

2004

We need t to be i Sustainable

“Hold ng the ncrease n the global average temperature to well below 2°C” – Paris Agreement, 2.1.a i T i T i https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/NL/ X /?uri=CELEX:22016A1019(01)

T IC emissions > aviation emissions

“If the nternet was a country t th would be the 13 largest em tter between Mex co and Braz l” – Sustainable Web Manifesto i i i i i T (based on CO2 emissions in Our World in Data vs I emissions data from Green Web Foundation)

International Energy Agency,

Eemshaven, the Netherlands

Middenmeer, the Netherlands 110 hectare / 271 acres

the web has a footprint, that we can reduce at work

t af Dr i Web Susta

t af Dr 6 principles 92 guidelines 253 success criteria 100+ contributors

User E Hosting, Infrastructure &S y y v x Business Strateg

T A Dutch C

i A Dutch C

41KB

13.2MB and yes, I accepted cookies, so the number includes ads

website size is a choice

websitecarbon.com

training.linuxfoundation.org/training/green-software-for-practitioners-lfc131

We need t to be i Ethical

bbc.com/news/technology-56135817

“people n the Web development commun ty [should] be eth cally and morally aware of what they [are] do ng” i i i i T – Sir im Berners-Lee, in: Weaving the Web (1999)

npm install ethics

Ethics how to act? what to do?

Ethics what matters? how to balance values?

Ethical principles Respect for human d gn ty Expl cab l ty Harm prevent on Fa rness i T T i i i i i i From fundamental rights ( EU reaty, Charter of Fundamental Rights) to ethical principles. From: Ethics Guidelines for rustworthy AI, door de High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (2019).

The web can cause harm

i i i The web can d scr m nate

i i i The web s full of nexpl cable content

vasilis.nl/clocks/about/en

✔ Do not not collect all my data

w3.org/TR/ethical-web-principles

“Ethics aside…”

We need t to be i Accessible

i i i i i St ll lots of naccess b l ty

Websites with sticky elements that cover everything when zoomed aren’t accessible codepen.io/hidde/pen/PovjPYV

Websites with FAQs that aren’t reachable by just a keyboard aren’t accessible codepen.io/hidde/pen/ExzXVmb

Websites with important election results in an image with no alternatives aren’t accessible

// features that do some accessibility // semantics for you, like popover I am popover content <button popovertarget=”p”> Open popover </button> <div popover id=”p”> I am popover content </div>

Chromium Blog, Updates to form controls and focus blog.chromium.org/2020/03/updates-to-form-controls-and-focus.html

Contrast warnings in Gutenberg, for WordPress Checks in Editoria11y v2, for Drupal (Based on Sa11y)

No-mouse demos

We need t to be i Fun

squoosh.app

wakamaifondue.com

You may have fun on the web

We need t to be i Ours

i Too much of the web belongs to corporat ons

Can I use the C-word?

i 401(K) 2012 on fl ckr

400 Invent on of algor thm c t mel nes 300 200 100 0 i i i i i How reasonable human beings are, over time

polarisation

i They dec de the features

i i I l ke to l nk places

They spy

vk.nl

github.blog/news-insights/company-news/no-cookie-for-you

i They can force the r values

More lobby than energy + pharma comb ned i T T Money spent yearly on Brussels lobby in euros. Source: he EU’s Lobby League able (Corporate Europe)

i i i i “It’s ncred ble to be among everyone here, part cularly you and the f rst lady.

i i i They remove the ncent ve to have your own webs tes

75% 50% 25% i 0% i i 100% People who have someth ng nterest ng to say

100% 75% 50% 25% i i 0% People who know how to post content on the r own s te

i i We need eas er ways to publ sh on the web

i i i Publ sh on your own s te f rst

hidde.blog

We must make and keep the web Sustainable Ethical Accessible Fun Ours

We must make and keep the web Sustainable Check your site and start making it smaller

We must make and keep the web Ethical Embrace ethics in your process, it matters!

We must make and keep the web Accessible Use platform features, CMSes an design systems

We must make and keep the web Fun Watch CSS Day videos to learn what’s possible

We must make and keep the web Ours Publish on your places before publishing anywhere else

hidde.blog/slides Thank you! Fonts: Bild and Bungee by David Jonathan Ross. Inspiration: Emily Bender, Karen Hao, Timnit Gebru, Tim Berners-Lee, Bruce Lawson.