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Mojo
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 13:43:52
I think the problem is people try to make it a selling point. Which it isn't. A more well rounded site - yes. A great sales pitch - not at this time.
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dpf
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From: India-napolis
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 13:43:59
this is an excellent point
quote:
Reason 5: We’re Past Inventing, We’re Maintaining
As Joe Clark pointed out in his excellent book Building Accessible Web sites, it is a lot harder to retrofit an existing Web site than to start from scratch.
The Web is no longer new. Many companies spent a lot of money on their site, and it’s not always an option to start from scratch. Building an accessible blog or a 10-page brochure site is a lot easier than cleaning out a 200,000-page monster maintained in an eight-year-old content management system.
It’s even harder if you built the client’s site in the first place.
For years, badly planned and executed Web sites were sold at high prices. Now we have to tell businesses they’ve been had. Nobody likes to hear that they need to replace an expensive, functional product with a new one.
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caz
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From: Somewhere south of Chester, UK
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 14:54:31
quote:
For years, badly planned and executed Web sites were sold at high prices. Now we have to tell businesses they’ve been had. Nobody likes to hear that they need to replace an expensive, functional product with a new one.
As always, it's up to the client when the pro's have been explained as well as the con's.
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Mojo
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 15:18:03
Good points all. But, I don't think this is fair:
quote:
Now we have to tell businesses they’ve been had.
When it comes to accessibility most site owners were not had. Rather, times have changed, the internet has evolved and their 7 year old site that has survived with a spattering of patches has finally run the course of it's life.
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Tailslide
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 15:35:39
Funny isn't it. A company wouldn't expect to use an advertising campaign year after year totally unchanged - but they want their websites to remain unchanged for eternity preferably!
I used to work for a TV company that would manage to persuade companies to shell out small fortunes for a small slot on cable tv channels with (comparatively) small audiences - but these same companies would be very reluctant to spend similar amounts on a website to last them say a couple of years.
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dpf
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From: India-napolis
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 15:45:21
excellent point
hhmmm
will someone please say soemthing controversial? I'm bored being so agreeable.
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BobbyDouglas
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From: Arizona
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/13/2005 20:52:58
No immediate benefit? My client's don't come to me looking for an immediate benefit. They want a site that will stand up in the long run. This quote below just doesn't seem to work.
quote:
Reason 2: There Is No Immediate Benefit
There is no immediate, measurable benefit from making a Web site accessible. Web accessibility enthusiasts might point out that that is not true as accessible Web sites are automatically more usable, and search engines can index them a lot easier. That is true but the benefits of that do not show up immediately—if ever. A fancy microsite or a video ad for a product, however, can trigger an immediate, measurable response in the form of traffic or revenue.
Good usability is a very important element in customer satisfaction, but you will rarely find it on the agenda of a project in the scoping phase (unless of course the project is usability consulting).
The argument that search engines are “blind billionaires”—that they “see” the Web like a blind visitor—is also a weak one. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vast field and a lot of competitors fight dirty (e.g., link farms, bridge pages). Large corporations would rather plan for sponsored links and cross marketing than concern themselves with markup techniques to boost their search engine rankings.
quote:
Reason 5: We’re Past Inventing, We’re Maintaining
- No, you are "fixing". If you have a CMS that doesn't work off a template system, something needs to be done. Either fix it now, or do it later when your competition is one step ahead.
quote:
Reason 6: It Is Not Part of the Testing Methodology
This one is funny.
quote:
Accessibility issues that require human verification are harder to quantify.
- Really? Last time I looked at the alt text, I had the hardest time with it. Maybe someone can teach me how to test if alt text makes sense!
quote:
Reason 8: Nobody Complains
- Good point. Even if a few did complain, why would I business take the time to help a few, when they could help so many more? Then we get back into the premise about ROI.
quote:
Reason 9: It Requires Involvement
One reason our clients don’t care about accessibility is that it means that they will have to deal with their Web site.
- I don't understand this one...
And at the end, this one was pretty funny: quote:
Send emails to companies every time it is hard for you to use their site. Point out that you will buy the product on their competitor’s site and why.
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caz
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From: Somewhere south of Chester, UK
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/14/2005 6:19:36
A good article and well written too; nice find Mojo.
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spitfire
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RE: Why clients don't care about Accessibility - 9/14/2005 14:31:20
Chris Heilmann wrote: "Accessibility is not a technical problem, it is a human interaction issue." Thank you so much, Chris, for an excellent and thoughtful article that is zooming around accessibility people even as we speak, to much acclaim.
Nicoleoz wrote: "I know how to do certain accessible things now, so they go into my base design regardless of whether it’s known to the client or not!" Exactly, Nicole, I couldn't agree more!
What clients question is the little line on the developer's timesheet charging them for retro-fitting a skip link - into a "new" site, or for what is actually the research time the developer needed to learn about accessibility or a particular feature. Canny clients would also question a little line on the developer's time sheet charging them for the time the developer took to learn a particular bit of his/her craft that should have been an integral part of the developer's skill set in the first place - but developers rarely identify that particular activity for what it really is . I know of someone, who, in a couple of months or so, expects to be asked to provide a site feature that is not renowned in its native form for accessibility. I also suspect that developer will research and find out how to do it accessibly without that extra little line on the timesheet charging the first client who wants it. That developer is one of the ethical ones and also knows the new found skills will be an intro to additional and/or larger clients and to more complex web development that can only be good for business overall.
I have been faced with several developers and mega-development teams, vying for some of the business I would like to outsource. Then I stipulate the site must reach a double A level of accessibility. Those who don't say... hunh?... will often take a sharp intake of breath, or make sucking sounds like a garage mechanic, shake their heads sadly and advise me it will cost an awful lot more. Yeah, right.
Client not interested in accessibility even though the developer has tried to explain?
So be it - caveat emptor.
Client wants an accessible site?
Choose a developer who has already demonstrated the necessary (existing) ability on other sites. Otherwise - caveat emptor  .
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