RE: Updated again: "Web Accessibility is Smart Business" Presentation

Hey Karl,

Welcome Karl Groves, I am really pleased that you 
have joined and I look forward to working with 
you - what fun!  About Slide 28:  I find myself 
in the unfamiliar position of disagreeing with 
you (although not at all offended, for the record).  Here's why I disagree:

While there are admittedly other aspects of the 
overall redesign, accessibility is definitely not 
as trivial as the coat of paint you compare it 
to.  The point is this:    As accessibility is 
integrated into the development process, it has a 
profound affect on how design decisions are made. 
The improved results are so closely interrelated 
that - well, you can not separate them, which is 
what I think you said.  Would the outcomes have 
been as great if the deliberate inclusion of 
accessibility features NOT been made?  We don't 
know.  Improved outcomes have been demonstrated 
in other cases, but we have permission from Legal 
and General which, I believe is why we rely on that one situation so heavily.

I have been working with the compliance and dev 
teams of a client of mine to be able to tell 
their (terrific!) story.  Trying to get those 
internal permissions has been going on for nearly 
two years, so I am not optimistic.  In the meantime, we have Legal and General.

I sure don't think we should discontinue using 
that example, because it really does capture the 
attention of certain audiences.  Perhaps a bit of 
modification in presentation along the lines of 
"...Of course there were other updated design 
techniques used that contributed to these 
outcomes, but designing for accessibility was an 
integral part of the results."  or something equally butt-covering.

Your other comments are interesting and worth 
discussion.  I look forward to the meeting tomorrow.

Best,
Sharron


At 11:45 AM 4/6/2011, Karl Groves wrote:
>Shawn,
>
>As resident newbie, I'm cautious to avoid diving 
>into a too-detailed critique, but I'd like to mention a few things:
>
>slide 4 - what evidence supports the implicit 
>claims?  Use of actual numbers on this slide 
>implies that we have data to support those numbers. I did not see them cited.
>
>Slide 18 - There are other SEO best practices 
>that may also work well on this slide, such as 
>use of headings and sensible link text.  What 
>would also be nice is if we also cite which WCAG 
>success criterion correspond to the SEO best practice.
>
>Slide 22 - please remove or make this chart more 
>realistic. This makes an implicit claim that 
>accessibility improvements will net huge 
>returns. I just don't think making such claims 
>are realistic and may be harmful to the presentation's credibility
>
>Slide 28 - I would personally choose to remove 
>Legal & General reference. In my reading of the 
>Legal & General case study, their situation was 
>a full redesign with new features. The ROI comes 
>from better SEO and usability and IMO using it 
>as an accessibility case study is misleading.
>To use a car-guy analogy it’s a bit like 
>painting the car a nice blue color and putting a 
>bigger engine in the car and saying "It goes 
>faster because of the blue paint!".
>
>I realize this latter criticism might go over 
>like a lead brick to others in the WG, and hope 
>nobody is offended. Philosophically, I feel it 
>important to stick with discussions of things 
>directly related specifically to accessible web development.
>
>In my opinion & experience, ROI comes from two 
>places: Increase in revenue and decrease in 
>costs. When we talk about increasing revenue and 
>decreasing costs, we should be discussing *only* 
>those things that can be directly attributed to 
>accessible development either as a direct effect 
>of accessibility or those things which occur as 
>a secondary effect attributed to accessibility. 
>I don't think the Legal & General example fits either of those.
>
>
>Thanks.
>
>Karl L. Groves
>Director, Training
>Deque Systems, Inc.
>Phone:  443.517.9280
>E-mail:  karl.groves@deque.com
>
>Is a non-compliant website putting your 
>organization at risk? Visit www.deque.com
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-eo-
> > request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Shawn Henry
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 11:51 AM
> > To: EOWG (E-mail)
> > Subject: Updated again: "Web Accessibility is Smart Business"
> > Presentation
> >
> >   EOWG,
> >
> > Based on feedback from last week's teleconference, I've updated
> > the "Web Accessibility is Smart Business" presentation at:
> > http://www.w3.org/WAI/presentations/bcase/
> >
> > OPEN:
> > * Will someone volunteer to make the alt text images for the
> > slide titled "[for example: alternative text for images]" (around
> > slide 15)
> >
> > Significant changes:
> > * OK but what does it cost? (around slide 19) - changed notes
> > * [investment] (20) - new slide & notes
> > * [lowering costs] (21) - new slide & notes
> > * [return on investment] (22) - new slide & notes
> > I know that some people did not like that chart. It feels like it
> > illustrates the points that we want to make so I put it back in
> > there differently just in case it now works. Feel free to say,
> > No, and I'll take it out again. Suggestions for other
> > illustration welcome!
> >
> > Minor changes:
> > * [market quote] (around slide 7) - edited slides text and note
> > text
> > * [photos of older computer users (8) - added in notes the first
> > paragraph
> > * Some basics (14) - moved slide location & changed notes to fit
> > flow
> > * [tips] (27) - edited slide text and notes just a little
> >
> > We'll discuss these and any other comments at this week's EOWG
> > teleconference. Feel free to discuss via e-mail in the meantime.
> >
> > Best,
> > ~Shawn
> >
> >
> > On 3/30/2011 7:21 PM, Shawn Henry wrote:
> > >  EOWG,
> > >
> > > The updated "Web Accessibility is Smart Business" presentation
> > is available from:http://www.w3.org/WAI/presentations/bcase/
> > >
> > > Please let me know right away if you cannot get the file.
> > >
> > > Open issues:
> > > * Example of important alt text. In the last discussion we
> > thought of a Buy Now button; however, that might be problematic.
> > Let's think about another compelling example, perhaps that
> > overlaps with SEO, too.
> > > * For the [photos] slide, can we come up with different people
> > representing more ethnic and geographic diversity who are widely
> > recognized and admired?
> > > * For the [market quote] slide, are there statistics from other
> > countries&/or worldwide that make this same point?
> > >
> > > Notable changes since last version:
> > > * OK... but what does it cost slide - rewrote the Notes
> > > * Alternative text benefits slide - minor edits to the slide
> > text
> > > * Search Engine Optimization slide - added paragraph in the
> > Notes
> > >
> > > We'll discuss it at this week's EOWG teleconference, and then
> > might be ready for a survey to gather approval to publish.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > ~Shawn
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -------- Original Message --------
> > > Subject:     Ready for Review: "Web Accessibility is Smart
> > Business" Presentation
> > > Date:     Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:14:57 -0600
> > > From:     Shawn Henry <shawn@w3.org>
> > > To:     EOWG (E-mail) <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >  EOWG,
> > >
> > > A complete draft of "Web Accessibility is Smart Business"
> > Presentation is available
> > fromhttp://www.w3.org/WAI/presentations/bcase/
> > > All comments are welcome at this point.
> > >
> > > *Active EOWG participants*: Please reply to me right away to
> > let me know if you can get the file. Also, let me know if you
> > will help cover one or more of the points below.
> > >
> > > Some open points:
> > >
> > > 1. Someone who has Office 2003 please check that all slides
> > have a white or light blue background. (previously slide 2 and
> > one other had red text on black background)
> > >
> > > 2. For the [photos] slide, we need people representing more
> > ethnic and geographic diversity, preferably who are widely
> > recognized and admired.
> > >
> > > 3. For the [Market quote] slide, it would be good to get
> > statistics from other countries&/or worldwide.
> > >
> > > 4. For the "Benefits situations" slide, we could use better
> > images to represent the text in the notes. Images should be
> > Creative Commons or have similar permission to use.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > ~Shawn
> > >
> > >
> > > -----
> > > Shawn Lawton Henry
> > > W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> > > e-mail:shawn@w3.org
> > > phone: +1.617.395.7664
> > > about:http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/
> > >

Received on Thursday, 7 April 2011 21:56:12 UTC