Re: Please share your accessibility story!

Hi,

In response to Sharron's request, I think we have a business story about 
accessibility that might interest you.  Keeping to her 5-question 
outline, the story follows my signature.

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
A Division of Bizware Online Applications, Inc.
29030 SW Town Center Loop East
Suite 202-187
Wilsonville, OR 97070
503-570-6831 - pshikli@access2online.com
Cell: 949-677-3705
FAX: 213-337-7029
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping websites become accessible

================================
Access2online
Prison inmates helping websites become accessible

As the CEO of a small software company, I was always on the lookout for 
new target markets for our flagship application, eTaskBoard, a tool to 
help manage the emerging virtual workplace, aka the gig economy, that 
is, simply folks who work from home.  Sometimes such folks just prefer 
to work from home, like house-husbands or the disabled, but I stumbled 
upon a huge target market with a far more serious commuting problem, 
prison inmates.

A long story about navigating the criminal justice system ends with 
Oregon's state prison authorities deciding to take a chance on us, 
mainly because our application has bulletproof security and because we 
can provide inmates to be released a far better job skill than making 
license plates.

Since an eTaskBoard implementation operates like a consulting service, 
we needed to select a specialty.  With so much website experience, I was 
like a kid in a candy store picking a specialty, but surprisingly 
ignorant about accessibility.  "Blind people can't fly airplanes," I 
thought, "and they can't see websites.  Tough break."

This changed the day I sat down next to a blind person who turned off 
the monitor, set the mouse aside, and began exploring a website of 
interest to both of us.  The space gibberish coming out of the speakers 
was completely unintelligible to me, yet his fingers danced around the 
keyboard with purpose.  The amazement really kicked in when he turned to 
me and described the website, not just the salient points but important 
hidden details.

He reduced the speed of his screen reader so I could understand some of 
the words.  "You understand that when it's zipping along?"

"Yup, and I can smell better than you, too," he replied.  "All without 
anything done to my ears or nose.  It was always there.  You use 10% of 
your ears and nose.  I've pushed those to maybe 20% or 30%.  We come in 
rather astounding packages."

This was when I realized I had happened upon a legacy project, the 
ability to leave behind a significant improvement in the lives of over 3 
million Americans, 2.3 million behind bars of our making and a million 
behind the bars of misfortune.  At my tender age of 67, one's legacy 
becomes more pressing, so I launched the Access2online implementation of 
eTaskBoard.  I delegated most of my CEO duties and focused on 
Access2online as my top priority.

Having completed a great WebAIM class on accessibility and leveraging 
the online educational resources of portals like W3C, I entered the 
demanding training program authored by the feds called Trusted Tester 
<https://www.dhs.gov/trusted-tester>.  After more than 200 hours, I got 
over 90% on their final exams to earn my certificate, and the ability to 
train the inmates.

Months later, Access2online has won contracts from several governmental 
agencies on a competitive basis, including our state's Department of 
Education and the Portland Metro, the largest governmental entity within 
the state.  But what I'm just as proud of is how our task-based approach 
allows us to do jobs as small as a single web page, a refreshingly 
affordable option for smaller schools and towns compared to the fees of 
big-project consulting firms.

Just a few weeks ago, we had an inmate paroled with happy tears in her 
eyes.  She knew she was walking out to the same job on the outside the 
moment she logged in from her home.  eTaskBoard is after all a virtual 
workplace.  She knew she had a good job and would be building 
communities instead of attacking them.

And this legacy project has just begun!
================================


On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 2:57 PM, Sharron Rush <srush@knowbility.org 
<mailto:srush@knowbility.org>> wrote:
>
>     Hey folks,
>
>     I love to think about the entirety of WAI-IG, distributed around
>     the world,  furthering the cause of accessibility where ever you
>     are in so many different ways.
>
>     As EOWG hones in on final plans for a relaunched, modernized WAI
>     website, we would love to share your stories with others around
>     the globe who struggle to make the accessibility business case.
>     Your story may help someone convince their organization that
>     designing for full inclusion makes good business sense as well as
>     being the right thing to do.
>
>     If you have a story to share, please send to the WAI editors list
>     wai-eo-editors@w3.org <mailto:wai-eo-editors@w3.org>  and we will
>     try to include as many as we can on the new WAI website!
>
>     Use these questions if they are useful but please do not feel
>     constrained by them:
>
>     - What kind of business/organization do you represent?
>     - How did your commitment to accessibility begin?
>     - How did the journey unfold?
>     - What were some barriers/surprises/easy wins?
>     - Were there unanticipated benefits?
>
>     Thanks a million for helping us make the case and spread the word
>     about the organizational benefits of digital accessibility.
>
>     Onward!
>     Sharron Rush
>     co-chair Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG)
>