Michelle had a great idea the other day... she was wondering what would happen if instead of making all web pages accessible, would it be better to make all sites have an accessible version of the page?

This is a subtle distinction...

Instead of retrofitting your flashy, image rich web page so its conforms to the accessibility laws... why not create a slimmed down version of that same page that's easy to read, and conforms to the rules? Or maybe make super-slimmed down versions that only contain the data on those pages, and make new regulations about how to display it?

That way everybody wins... the people who need accessible sites get one that is specifically designed for them and their needs. The people who want flash, get flash. Instead of a compromise that's painful for everybody, you get a site that gives everybody what they want!

It makes a lot of sense; many countries have laws that every site must be translated into multiple languages. In the UK, the government is required to translate some sites into Welsh, even though all Welshmen know English. Around Barcelona, they are required to translate some sites into Catalan, even though every Catalonian speaks Spanish. These sites go through so much work to support users who don't need assistance. Why not do the same for people who actually do need assistance?

What would these pages look like? Well, they would probably be very lean. They would be content-heavy, thin on the images, and have easy to use web forms. They wouldn't be as pretty, but they wouldn't have to be.

People are already doing this to a degree... RSS feeds are a great way to seperate your information from its presentation. I use them all the time. You can still embed advertisements in RSS feeds: they are simply text based. If I were visually impaired, RSS feeds would probably be the only way I'd ever read the news... despite the limitations of RSS.

What is missing is a standard like RSS that allows people to submit forms, or navigate the site. What about encouraging sites to have an XML based site map, for easy navigation? Put all page content in RSS feeds, and let people navigate to other feed by inspecting the sitemap. Each page could also have a mini sitemap of related RSS feeds.

You could also do the same for any web form you use. Especially if you have a REST or SOA based web application, it would be incredibly easy to make an XML representation of the submitable web forms on the page.

The best part of it is that everyone benefits from this technology. Quick and dirty web spiders could use the XML site map to crawl or copy the site... and you could quickly find any web form you need.

It Just Makes Sense©, which of course means the web standards committees will never agree to it...

Related Items:

• Bringing Accessibility To Web 2.0