RE: Multiple versions of a web page

Scott Luebking writes:
 > Hi,
 > 
 > I agree that there probably won't be a universal solution which
 > consists of some combination of multiple versions of a web page
 > and some sets of transformations on certain versions of the
 > that web page.

Of course the ultimate extrapolation of the "multiple versions"
phenomenon consists in "final-form" languages where the server
generates a highly presentational format based on user/user-agent
preferences. If you are arguing that there is no number (n) of final
forms that can be delivered by such a process that would satisfy the
need for accessibility then this would suggest the principle that any
"final-form" versions must be accompanied by at least one alternative,
semantically rich version, made available for processing further
downstream (by the user agent, a proxy or other applicable software).

If this conclusion is correct (and I don't have time to argue the
point this evening), then it should presumably be incorporated into
the conformance scheme (i.e., it is permissible to provide multiple,
including final-form versions and these may indeed enhance
accessibility, but at least one semantically rich version should
nonetheless be available satisfying checkpoints 1.3 & 1.5).

Received on Tuesday, 1 January 2002 05:16:28 UTC