The Web Design Group presents:


Guide to frames usage


WDG Statement of position on frames

The Web Design Group was founded to promote the creation of Web sites that are accessible to all users, regardless of browser, platform, or operating system. We firmly believe that it is always possible to create sites in this manner.

The ability to display multiple documents at once is an innovative idea. Unfortunately, the current implementation of "frames" has several serious shortcomings. Their design is such that users of frames-incapable browsers cannot use the site properly, unless the author takes great extra care to make the site accessible to these users.

The implementation in Netscape 2.0 of these frames immediately meant that all other browsers suddenly appeared to be "outdated" because they could not handle this new extension. This has led to a great number of sites that insult their visitors because their browser does not support frames, rather than provide alternative content in a more user-friendly manner.

For these reasons, we believe that a site that truly wants to be accessible to all should be very careful when using frames.


Web Design Group
Last modified: 28 Nov 1999.
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