RE: Costs of Accessibility?

Lainey,

 

You likely already have this data in your brain…but just in case you don’t.
I love the “Case Study of Accessibility Benefits:  Legal & General (L&G)
article posted at http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/legal-and-general-case-study

 

Accessibility changes

 

·         Measures taken:

 

o   Accessibility audit and usability testing of existing site

o   Market research from the existing customer membership

o   Incorporation of the accessibility needs of the target audience most
likely to be excluded or obstructed by inaccessible websites

o   A new site was designed and built, seeking to ensure conformation to all
relevant accessibility standards, successful passing usability testing and
evaluation by users with disabilities5 before going live.

 

Results

·         Within 24 hours natural search engine traffic saw a 25% increase,
eventually growing to 50%.

·         Significant improvement in Google rankings for all target keywords

·         Reduction in maintenance costs by 66%

·         Site visitors receiving quotations doubled within 3 months

·         100% return on investment (ROI) in 12 months

 

Additional benefits

 

·         Average times for content maintenance jobs reducing from 5 days to
0.5 days, saving £200,000 GBP per year

·         Page loading times reduced by 75%

·         Positive customer feedback on noticeably improved performance of
site

·         Inaccessibility complaints reduced to zero

·         New site is accessible to mobile devices

 

I think an example of the concrete ROI data you seek can be found in this
research.

 

Looking forward to seeing you at AccessU West in January 2011.

 

Best,

Glenda

 

glenda sims   |   university of texas at austin   |   accessibility and web
standards advocate      

                  web for everyone. web on everything. - w3 goals 

 

From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Lainey Feingold
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 1:05 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Costs of Accessibility?

 

Dear WAI list:  In its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, The U.S.
Department of Justice asks a question about cost:  "Question 13:  What are
the annual costs generally associated with creating, maintaining, operating,
and updating a website?"  Please share any information on this, as well as
any information on the additional cost (if any) of including accessibility!
(off list to LF@LFLegal.com)

 

I wrote about the costs of creating my accessible website at
http://lflegal.com/2010/10/lflegal-doj-anprm/  More examples like that would
be helpful to the Department. 

 

You can read all 19 questions in the full ANPRM at:
http://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20anprm_2010.htm

 

Thanks, Lainey

Lainey Feingold

Law Office of Lainey Feingold

http://lflegal.com/

510.548.5062

LF@LFLegal.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LFLegal