Re: Test Management Tools - Accessibility Guidelines

There's a great book that covers the business case for accessibility
that has just come out which will be helpful to you with this
question, and actually has case studies with internal tools:
http://www.strategicaccessibility.com/

Katherine

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 8:13 AM, Samantha Bird <samanthazoe360@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you all for your great feedback - you gave me the answer I was hoping
> to get! I have some good reasons to push for ensuring all our products are
> accessibility friendly regardless of time scales etc. Much appreciated Joe,
> Morten and Deborah :) What a great mailing list this is ...
>
> Morten, on a different note, I would be very interested in discussing the
> tools you use on a daily basis so i can get a further understanding of the
> tools available to the general public. I won't lie, 25 years in programming
> when reliant on accessible tools is rather impressive.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> On 29 June 2012 14:49, <deborah.kaplan@suberic.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, 29 Jun 2012, Samantha Bird wrote:
>>>
>>> I wanted to get a few opinions as to if a testing tool would need to be
>>> Accessible or would this be unnecessary work?
>>
>>
>> Samantha,
>>
>> Here are some questions to ask people at your office who are
>> arguing against making the testing tool accessible.
>>
>> Do you believe, either legally or ethically or simply because of
>> sound business practice, that software that is used in places
>> of business should be accessible to all employees? Is your
>> employer a large enough company to be governed by the ADA's
>> regulations itself? Would your company ever be delivering
>> services to companies which are bound by regulations which
>> require all contracted firms to follow ADA or similar guidelines?
>> Are you positive that the perfect employee is not waiting right
>> around the corner, who happens to be somebody who relies on JAWS
>> or ZoomText or NaturallySpeaking to interact with computers?
>> Have all of the current employees of your employer been granted a
>> dispensation from the universe promising that none of you will
>> ever get a mobility or vision disability?
>>
>> Accessibility testing tools are business software just like
>> Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat, and the exact same constraints
>> apply as to why these tools should be accessible. In fact, the
>> constraints are even more relevant than for normal software,
>> because the accessibility testing and programming community
>> disproportionately represents professionals with disabilities.
>> It's actually extremely likely that the perfect employee for your
>> next corporate opening is right around the corner, and happens to
>> be somebody who relies on JAWS or ZoomText or NaturallySpeaking to
>> do her work.
>>
>> Besides which, you guys are obviously experts who know how to do
>> it right. You might as well. :-)
>>
>> -Deborah Kaplan
>> Accessibility Team Colead
>> Dreamwidth Studios LLC
>
>



-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Mancuso
web accessibility, online community, social media

The Vesuvius Group: virtual world community builders
(http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com)
GimpGirl Community Liaison (http://www.gimpgirl.com)
Olimpias Project Collaborator (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~petra/index.htm)
Genderplayful Marketplace Facebook Curator
(http://www.facebook.com/genderplayful)

http://twitter.com/musingvirtual
http://youtube.com/musingvirtual
http://facebook.com/kmancuso
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymancuso
Second Life: Muse Carmona
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Friday, 29 June 2012 19:45:39 UTC