Re: contact with developers (was RE: webwatch-l What To Do About .gif Files)

Hi,
I think it is very important to understand what motivates or will motivate
a web site developer to make his/her web site accessible.

I agree that a certain percentage of web sites will need to be accessible
because of various laws, ADA, etc.  In terms of business motivation,
the underlying forces are less clear.  One consideration a business
would have is how many potential, qualified customers are blind.
If the business believes that not many of its customers are blind,
the effort for developing and testing accessible web sites may not
be worth it.  (Readability of a web site is important, but accessibility
of a web site is more than that.)

A third group of web site developers, probably the largest group,
develop their sites for non-business reasons and are not under
any legal obligations to make a site accessible.  What will motivate
these people?

I'm at a loss to know how to make accessibility so attractive that it
can't be refused.  Perhaps a goal of making accessibility easier to
include in web sites would be more reasonable.

Scott



> 
> taking into account their audience and the type of web matter they are
> doing, it comes down to a couple of choices.  If they are doing public
> business or are envolved in government or education here in the u s in any
> case, they are subject to pollicy.  If they are doing business of any
> kind, it would stand to reason, that the shear numbers of people that
> might be attracted to their sites would it were that they were more
> readable for all might turn the tide.  In none of these senarios fits, or
> if other constraints prevail, there is nothing to move the mountain.
> it is in everyone's interest to have information that is given given in a
> way which is accessable to all.  Instead of asking what motivates people
> to produce accessable sites, we should perhaps make it so appealing to do
> so that they can't refuse.
> microsoft has some passages which summ this up pretty in their
> accessability documents.
> Why should accessability be a factor in design?
>

Received on Monday, 1 December 1997 21:09:11 UTC