- From: Michael Burks <mburks952@worldnet.att.net>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:51:17 -0400
- To: "David Bolnick" <davebo@MICROSOFT.com>, "'Francisco Godinho'" <f.godinho@mail.telepac.pt>, "WAI Interest Group" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
I agree totally, the biggest expense is raising awareness and changing attitudes, once that is done, the cost is nothing in my opinion and since the web sites are usable by more people it may be less than nothing. Sincerely, Mike Burks Chairman Internet Society SIG for Access to the Internet for people with Disabilities http://www.isoc.org/isoc/access/ Member Advisory Board International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet http://www.icdri.org -----Original Message----- From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of David Bolnick Sent: Friday, July 23, 1999 12:21 PM To: 'Francisco Godinho'; WAI Interest Group Cc: guia.pasig@bigfoot.com; Dolphin - Neill McBride; Hadar - Hans Sundstrõm; CAPS - Luis Azevedo; IBM - SNS - Phill Jenkins; IBM - SNS - Jim Thatcher; IBM - Robert B. Mahaffey; Javier Romañach; Alexis Donnelly; Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y R.; Francisco Antonio Soeltl; Hadar - Jens Hansen; SIVA - Massimo Ferrario; WAI - Judy Brewer; Ricardo Silva; Gary Moulton; NCAM - Larry Goldberg; NCAM - Geoff Freed; Robert Neff; SIVA - Renzo Andrich; Sun - Earl Jonhson; Sylvie Duchateau; Waddell, Cynthia Subject: RE: URGENT: Help The biggest expense in creating an accessible Web site is changing attitudes - the rest is negligible. I recently worked with a Web design contractor. He already knew good Web design practices so it took him a total of 1 hour of studying the www.w3.org/wai guidelines to be fully conversant in accessible Web design. David. ______________________________ David A. Bolnick, Ph.D. Accessibility Product Manager: Government and Legislation Producer: Microsoft Enable Productions (http://microsoft.com/enable/productions/) Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 Tel: 425-936-8342 Page: 888-899-0841 Fax: 425-936-7329 Cell: 206-660-3054 E-mail: davebo@microsoft.com Web: http://microsoft.com/enable -----Original Message----- From: Francisco Godinho [mailto:f.godinho@mail.telepac.pt] Sent: Friday, July 23, 1999 3:54 AM To: WAI Interest Group Cc: guia.pasig@bigfoot.com; Dolphin - Neill McBride; Hadar - Hans Sundstrõm; CAPS - Luis Azevedo; IBM - SNS - Phill Jenkins; IBM - SNS - Jim Thatcher; IBM - Robert B. Mahaffey; Javier Romañach; Alexis Donnelly; Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y R.; Francisco Antonio Soeltl; Hadar - Jens Hansen; SIVA - Massimo Ferrario; WAI - Judy Brewer; Ricardo Silva; Gary Moulton; David Bolnick; NCAM - Larry Goldberg; NCAM - Geoff Freed; Robert Neff; SIVA - Renzo Andrich; Sun - Earl Jonhson; Sylvie Duchateau; Waddell, Cynthia Subject: URGENT: Help Importance: High Dear friends, The Portuguese law about web accessibility is ready to be approved or rejected by the Government in few days. This law, in Portugal, could be very important to web accessibility in Europe and Brazil. However, there is one question that is crucial for the decision: Some members of the Government think that accessible web authoring is expensive and difficult. I have 24 hours to summarize some arguments (one page) to overcome this lack of information. I would be grateful if you could help me today. In the W3C/WAI FAQs, I found some arguments: 9. Does it cost more to make a site accessible? http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCAG-REC-fact.html#text Designing a new site to be accessible should not add significantly to development cost. Some aspects of accessibility, such as use of style sheets, can actually reduce the costs of maintaining or updating sites, and this benefit should increase over time as style sheets are more evenly implemented in browsers and available as an authoring strategy in authoring tools. For existing sites, the ease or difficulty of making sites accessible depends on a variety of factors, including the size of a site, the complexity of a site, and the authoring tool that was used to make a site. Periodic upgrades or reviews of sites can be good opportunities to review the accessibility of sites. When compared with the broader audience that a site is available to, and the greater usability for other users as well, accessible sites can be cost-effective. [end] I think that I need more arguments. Should I alert for the production's cost of alternative formats like braille or audio tapes ? Thank you for your help Francisco Godinho Co-coordinator of the Petition for the Accessibility of the Portuguese Internet PASIG - Portuguese Accessibility Special Interest Group http://www.acessibilidade.net/index_eng.html
Received on Friday, 23 July 1999 13:56:35 UTC