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      <title>Detailed View for rule: Use a public text identifier in a DOCTYPE statement</title>
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               <td valign="top" nowrap="true" class="name">Use a public text identifier in a DOCTYPE statement</td>
               <td valign="top" nowrap="true" class="compatibility">&nbsp;</td>
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               <td colspan="2" class="divider"><img src="dwres:18084" width="100%" height="1"></td>
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               <td valign="top" align="right" nowrap="true" colspan="2" class="requirements">WAI / WCAG 1.0 Priority 2 checkpoint 3.2</td>
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               <td valign="top" colspan="2" class="description"><b>Issue Description</b><br>
                  
                  
                  <p>
                     The DOCTYPE element is missing or is not valid.
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  
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               <td valign="top" colspan="2" class="description"><b>How to fix</b>
                  
                  
                  <p>
                     If the DOCTYPE element is missing, then add one. If it is not valid,
                     then edit and correct it. <br>
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  
                  <p>
                     Check the validity of the DOCTYPE by using the Validator.
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  <p>
                     The DOCTYPE should contain the HTML language version that is used. For example, HTML 4.01 can be based on three different
                     variants (i.e. three DTDs). It is important to include one of the 
                     following document type declarations in the documents. 
                     The DTDs vary in the elements they support.<br>
                     To define the DOCTYPE of the page include one of the following 
                     just before the <strong>HTML</strong> tag, at the beginning 
                     of the document:
                     <pre>
  &lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 
       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"&gt;
</pre> 
                     <pre>
  &lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" 
       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"&gt;
</pre> 
                     <pre>
  &lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" 
       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd"&gt;
</pre> 
                     
                     The following DOCTYPE is for XHMTL strict (and similar ones exist for
                     the Transitional and Frameset flavors: see the <strong>XHTML 1.0 page</strong>
                     [http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/#xhtml1]
                      by W3C):
                     
                     <pre>
  &lt;!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"&gt;
</pre>
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               <td valign="top" colspan="2" class="description"><b>Issue Explanation</b><br>
                  
                  
                  <p>
                     According to HTML standards, each HTML document requires a Document
                     Type Declaration. The "DOCTYPE" begins the HTML document
                     and tells which version of HTML to expect when processing the
                     document.
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  <p>
                     The DOCTYPE declaration identifies the computer language and version
                     in which the document has been coded. With this information
                     browsers can interpret accessibility features in the document
                     correctly. <br> This requirement is important for accessibility
                     because assistive technologies may rely on this declaration to
                     determine how to process the document.
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  <p>
                     When using non-HTML documents (for example when using SMIL or
                     SVG) use the
                     appropriate DOCTYPE declaration for that markup language to ensure that
                     browsers do not attempt to interpret it incorrectly as HTML.
                     
                  </p>
                  
                  
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