Re: Disability statistics

On Sun, 16 Dec 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

it should be a "complete" package of reasons.  don't forget that for most
businesses it should be free for all intents and purposes. section 44 of
the USA tax code is a TAX CREDIT to small business and Section 190 is an
ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION for all businesses.

and all this can be rolled over from year to year

now in a cost benefit study, any benefit is a positive when the cost is 0

a can't lose option. the ONLY reason for lack of access is a social
problem

Bob


> At 7:04 AM -0500 12/16/01, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> >More particularly, it is that the benefit of accessibility to
> >the bottom line is often simple to get and very good return on investment -
> >accountants might not know that, but will be interested in it if it can be
> >backed up.
> 
> If this were the case then accessibility would be the standard, not
> the exception.  The return on investment -- by which we typically
> mean "how much more money you make from selling to disabled people
> over the cost of retrofitting a site" -- is not "very good".  It
> can't be "backed up" because it's simply not true.  There are much
> better ways to spend your money to improve your bottom line than
> making a web site accessible to a tiny fraction of users.
> 
> Plus, the big danger here is that even if you could POSSIBLY prove
> that there are some audiences which there is a benefit -- even if
> the numbers were "well, okay, if we spend $12,000 this year we
> can get $20,000 extra in business from blind folks" -- then you
> are subjecting the whole process to the same kind of scrutiny.
> 
> What if it doesn't make good business sense to enable access by
> the cognitively disabled?  What if their market value is far less
> than the market value of highly educated, computer-using, white
> blind people?  Do you only target the latter audience and ignore
> the cognitively disabled one?  What if your market research shows
> you that the cost of valid HTML isn't worth it, but the cost of
> ALT text is?
> 
> Do we really want to reduce accessibility compliance to a simple
> business transaction?  I hope not -- but that's what the business
> model rationale does.  It makes an unsupportable claim -- "you
> will make more money if you take accessibility into consideration!"
> -- and it certifies the notion that accessibility should be based
> on whether or not it's financially lucrative to pursue certain
> audiences.
> 
> I think the better argument is the "it's right" one.  People who
> are blind, people who are cognitively disabled, people who are
> deaf, people who are unable to use a keyboard or a mouse -- those
> people deserve access to my content for the same reason anyone
> else does, not just because I am hoping they have a wad of
> cash and I can get to that untapped market.
> 
> --Kynn
> 
> 

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Received on Monday, 17 December 2001 17:18:16 UTC