Re: Business Benefits of Access-for-All Design

Hi everyone, read the list but don't contribute often I'm afraid!

I think from the perspective of the public good  the article highlights the
positive effect accessibility can have on people who have been traditionally
marginalised by the development of information technology (people with
disabilities, the elderly, people who are illeteriate etc).

However I belief the incentives for accessibility (beyond the public good
i.e. within the private sector) are driven by their adoption by mass
markets.
For example, OCR technology was pioneered to make print more accessible for
the blind, yet solicitors, journalists, researchers etc all use those little
OCR pens to scan and record print material and OCR technology is widly
available and popular because it had commercial applications.

Currently accessibiliy is a growing priority with responsible bodies in the
private sector - social responsibility and putting back into the community
etc - but there is little point in getting outraged at an airline becuse
it's website is inaccessible - you need to either legislate for
accessibility or provide a commerical incentive. The incentives are there
(as the Jacobs article demonstrated) but is it the case that the incentives
are not enough for certain organisations? It's can't be ignorance alone can
it?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Johns" <andrew.johns@jkd.co.uk>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 12:29 PM
Subject: RE: Business Benefits of Access-for-All Design


>
> I've seen a lot of comments regarding the accessibility of this page, but
I think most of us already know what is wrong with the page in terms of
markup and accessibility.  If any of you have actually been able to read it,
what I would like to know is if the writer's points are actually valid? Is
it the kind of thing that could persuade clients to take an active interest
in web accessibility? I think a discussion on that might be more beneficial
to the list.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Andrew Johns
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael R. Burks [mailto:mburks952@worldnet.att.net]
> Sent: 27 November 2002 16:42
> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Business Benefits of Access-for-All Design
>
>
>
> All,
>
> for those with an interest, this is an updated version of Steve Jacobs
> paper....the original was great!  This one is better!
>
> "Business Benefits of Access-for-All Design."  The updated content appears
> as follows:
> http://www.ideal-group.org/World_Bank/index.asp
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mike Burks
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
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> _____________________________________________________________________
>

Received on Thursday, 28 November 2002 10:09:32 UTC