RE: good response:Fw: Time and Cost Modeling of making web pagesaccessible.

Actually there are a number of products where the software helps you. Bobby
(and some other tools like it) show you where problems are, and might give
you a reference in your code.

Tools like AccRepair, Aprompt, LIFT for Dreamweaver, and others can either
integrate with editing software to put you in the right place to make the
changes, and provide more detailed information about what needs to be fixed
and how, or they actually have an editing function themselves - for example
they might ask you for a short equivalent text to replace an image when
necessary, and then make the code changes automatically.

Additionally there is software that can work out what you have done in a site
already. For example, if you have used an image to link to a particular page
in 7 places, and the text equivalent in each case is "search", when you use
the image again to link to the same place the tool might propose the text
equivalent "search" - which reduces the effort of fixing something to a
single confirmation.

These kind of techniques are being developed and published by the Authoring
Tool Accessibility Guidelines working group http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU on an
ongoing basis. If you have a particular interest in developing those or
seeing what is there you might like to look further into that group.

Cheers

Charles McCN

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, Christian Seus wrote:

  David,

  I have not used this software that you speak of, but it looks like it is
  just a fancier version of the bobby software.  You still have to manually
  add code to repair your accessibility issues.  You still have to manually
  add alt tag descriptions even if you are using this software.  The
  software is not going to do it for you.  It just points out the problem.

  Christian

  -----Original Message-----
  From: David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
  Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 9:02 AM
  To: Christian Seus; wai-ig list
  Subject: Re: good response:Fw: Time and Cost Modeling of making web pagesaccessible.

  http://www.hisoftware.com
  can severely cut the cost of repairing a site but of course, we want to
  build it right in the first place.  yes, it will test and repair your
  site and I doubt 200 images will take hours in this senario.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Christian Seus" <cas@ichp.edu>
  To: "wai-ig list" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
  Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 8:46 AM
  Subject: RE: good response:Fw: Time and Cost Modeling of making web
  pages accessible.


  Jennison,

  The costs involved in putting alt tags on your images are very minimal.
  I would say a few hours at the very most for 200 images.  The real issue
  is the costs involved in making your whole site accessible.  And this
  would depend on your site and how it is coded now.

  Currently, I don’t think there is software to test your site for a
  complete list of accessible issues.  There is software that will help
  you try though. http://www.cast.org/bobby/


  Christian Seus
  Web Designer
  Gainesville, Fl

  -----Original Message-----
  From: David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
  Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 8:10 AM
  To: wai-ig list
  Subject: good response:Fw: Time and Cost Modeling of making web pages
  accessible.


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Jacobs, Steve I" <sj131264@exchange.DAYTONOH.NCR.com>
  To: <asuncion@alcor.concordia.ca>
  Cc: <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>
  Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 7:49 AM
  Subject: Time and Cost Modeling of making web pages accessible.


  Jennison,

  One of the benefits of adding Alt-Text to an image is that it enhances
  the
  ability to automatically transcode HTML into WML.  This is a business
  benefit to those wishing to make their HTML content accessible to
  wireless
  Internet appliances.  We have demonstrated this in practice.

  Simplifying the content of a web page has holds the potential to cut
  language translation costs in-half because, on average, you reduce the
  number of words by a half.  We have demonstrated this in practice.

  Simplified English is easier to read by those using English as a Second
  Language. This has been demonstrated in practice.

  There is more to the "value equation" of changing Silver [HTML] to Gold
  [Accessible HTML] than simply the cost of conversion.  Gold is worth
  more
  than Silver.  To make good business sense your model will need to factor
  in
  this value... whatever the business community deems it to be.  I can
  certainly provide you with my opinion. :-)  I predict that that the true
  "cost" is negative... to a great extent.

  Good luck on your efforts.

  Sincerely,

  Steve

  Steve Jacobs
  Accessibility Program Manager
  and President, IDEAL at NCR
  NCR Corporation
  2809 Bohlen Drive
  Hilliard, Ohio 43026

  Phone: (614) 777-0660
  Fax: (937) 445-1955
  TTY: (800) 855-2880
  STS: (877) 750-9097
  E-mail: steve.jacobs@ncr.com
  URL: http://www.ncr.com


  -----Original Message-----
  From: David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
  Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:25 AM
  To: uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu
  Subject: Re: web page accessibility time and costing models?


  the wai might have info on this.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Jennison Asuncion" <asuncion@alcor.concordia.ca>
  To: <easi@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>
  Cc: <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>
  Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:05 AM
  Subject: web page accessibility time and costing models?


  Hello.

  I am wondering if anyone here either has or knows where I can find
  models
  that provide figures (based on real or assumed data) around the time and
  cost associated with making a web page accessible?

  For example, given a web site with 200 images, how long, on average,
  does
  it take to create the alt tag and test it? Additionally, how much
  additional cost does this add on to the development of  a site. Another
  example would be: how much time does it take to run a checker/repair
  tool
  on a typical web page?

  Any help in hthis area would be appreciated.

  Thanks,
  Jennison




-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI  fax: +33 4 92 38 78 22
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Friday, 26 April 2002 09:24:50 UTC