Let's say I have a web site... should I add new features, or follow the law? Usually this isn't an either/or proposition... typically people don't have to make a choice between adding cool features to their products, and following the laws... but when it comes to web sites, it ain't so simple.

On the one side is shiny new technology: AJAX, Mashups, Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, etc. As new innovative buzzwords come about, customers demand them.

On the other side is the law: accessibility standards for the visually and physically handicapped. This is vastly more important than people understand... The web has done more than the wheelchair to empower the handicapped. Shopping, research, finding friends, being a part of a community, helping others, even building a home in Second Life. Thus, finding a site that you can't use is vastly worse than a building without a ramp... its more like a building with a disappearing ramp...

Unfortunately, a lot of these shiny new technologies break existing standards. Most of the standards about clear labels and navigation are easy to implement... but others aren't. Screen readers need you to refresh the web page in order to "trigger" the event that something has changed... however most of the new technology focuses on changing the page without a refresh. What to do?

Well, you all know how I feel about standards... screw standards! Focus on the goal -- empower the handicapped -- and innovate your way out of the problem.

Now... there has been plenty of work on finessing Web 2.0 technologies to barely follow the accessibility standards... AJAX Patters has several. I prefer the more direct approach. New Web 2.0 technologies are not accessible, because screen reader technology is almost a decade old. The laws are written to conform to ridiculously outdated software... but people will stick to it until somebody has a better idea.

My solution? Firevox! Its a free, open source screen reader extension to Firefox. It is a native plug-in, and thus anything running on the page -- including Flash -- can be configured to "trigger" a redraw event in the screen reader. It's lacking a coherent set of patterns and standards for its usage, but that just takes time.

After this, web 2.0 technologies will help the visually handicapped even more than average users! Most of us have never used a screen reader... so trust me on this one. Its unbelievably painful to have to refresh and reread a web page when only 10 words have changed. If done right, Web 2.0 could empower the blind to surf the web much faster than before.

If you're a big giant company with plenty of cash (ie, Oracle), concerned about web sites and accessibility (ie, Oracle), and no love of Microsoft (ie, everybody), then let your developers help out on the Firevox project. $100k, 6 months, problem solved.

Of course, this means that sites may need to say Best Viewed with Firevox on them... but I won't shed a tear.

Related Items:

• The Future Of Accessibility