Just had a great conversation with a reporter who asked if we work on WAP websites. Well, as I told her, we don’t anymore. WAP sites have become absorbed in the greater web accessibility movement. Whether you call it 508 compliant, liquid design, or device independent, today’s websites should be able to show up on a PC, Mac, Nokia, BlackBerry, or kiosk equally well.

The source of this ability is liquid design, which uses XHTML and CSS, two complementary technologies that make web pages both easier to download and update. Liquid design separates the content of a page from it’s design, or layout. So instead of being stuck in a table, the site is fluid, able to rearrange itself and mold to the screen.

Take for example the recent website we launched for former Congressman Bob Beauprez: www.alineofsight.com. A Line of Sight was created to provide policymakers with resources that may be helpful in a pinch, such as just before a vote or on the way to an event. With limited time, these policymakers get their information one way: via BlackBerry. So not only does the site need to look good on a desktop, it needs to be user-friendly on the small screen.

So we used liquid design, which helps the site mold to BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices with ease. The simple text of the page is in one file, and the design/placement of that content is in another file. The text file references the design file to figure out how to display correctly, no matter what size screen it’s headed for.

So that begs the question: is your site mobile ready? Bank of America just announced that they are adding a feature to allow customers to access account information via cell phones. Yahoo! continues to update its mobile device offerings, called Yahoo! Go 2.0. Google’s homepage has long been accessible via cell phone and PDA, and the search leader is now offering lots of stuff for cell and PDA, such as e-mail and maps. Europeans have used cell phones for web surfing for years, and now Americans are quickly catching up.

So is your site mobile ready? I sure hope so…