A recent article on CNN.com, entitled ‘Web accessibility is no longer an afterthought,’ written by Tom Krazit, included a quote from Nicholas Zakas, the principal front-end developer for Yahoo’s home page: “There are a bunch of things (in web design) that are not features... performance is not a feature, internationalization is not a feature, and accessibility is not a feature.”
This brings to light a major dilemma with which I’ve constantly struggled: how do I write code that adheres to accessibility guidelines while respecting a client’s budget? Let’s face it, building a completely accessible website takes longer than not, and it is sometimes difficult to justify, especially in economic times such as the one in which we currently find ourselves, a premium price for something that is frequently seen as akin to voodoo and charlatanism.
The answer to this is not as simple as just baking the extra time into proposals and hourly rates. I believe it is our jobs as web professionals to educate and promote the use of web standards and accessible web sites to our clients. According to Alan Brightman of Yahoo, “there are about 60 million people in the U.S. who can’t use a computer to get on the internet in the normal fashion”. Brightman also estimates that there is “about $220 billion in discretionary spending available to disabled people”.
The article makes the point, one with which I whole-heartedly agree, that web accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do, it also makes sound business sense, and that’s something we can take immediately to a client.
Have a read:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/15/cnet.web.accessibility/index.html
To get an idea of some of the challenges presented to an individual when using the internet, take a look at the following video:
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