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Re: Question on accessibility

for

From: Kristin Evenson Hirst
Date: Feb 22, 2002 11:00AM

At 04:19 PM 2/13/02 -0500, "Karthik Narayanan. R"
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>What do designers / developers usually do with regards to making a product
>accessible when the client / employer does not really care about such an
>issue? I am designing a web based product (using Java ) for my employer,
>and the product is to be used across 4 organizations, but I have thus far
>not given much thought to making it accessible for the disabled. I am
>aware that JAVA API provides facilities for making components ( esp. Swing
>and AWT) accessible. In which direction should I head given that there is
>no need from my employer about accessibility?

In my experience, building in accessibility from the beginning generally
improves usability for everyone. And many tools that were designed for the
disabled have enjoyed great success among the general public -- for
example, OXO Good Grips kitchen gadgets.

Here are some links that might be useful--

Getting a Grip on Kitchen Tools
Fed up with user-hostile kitchen gadgets, retired cookware entrepreneur Sam
Farber did more than just complain about them. He started OXO International
and produced a line of ergonomically superior kitchen and garden tools,
under the brand name Good Grips.
http://www.cdf.org/cdf/atissue/vol2_1/kitchen/kitchen.html

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, November 11, 2001: Beyond Accessibility: Treating
Users with Disabilities as People
"... Many of the usability problems are very cheap to fix, especially if
designers are aware of the usability guidelines before constructing the
site. Retrofitting something that's designed wrong is more expensive, but
still worth it for a company that values employee productivity (for
intranets) and customer relationships (for public websites). ..."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20011111.html

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, August 19, 2001: Did Poor Usability Kill E-Commerce?
"Summary: User success rates on e-commerce sites are only 56%, and most
sites comply with only a third of documented usability guidelines. Given
this, improving a site's usability can substantially increase both sales
and a site's odds of survival."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010819.html



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