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Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism

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From: Angela Colter
Date: Jun 9, 2010 12:42PM

Hi Katherine,

I can't say that I have a LOT of experience introducing web accessibility
into a corporation. But I do have some. I'm doing it right now. So here's my
take on how you may want to approach it.

The very first thing I would recommend you do is *find an advocate* higher
up the food chain. As an intern -- and please don't take this the wrong way
-- your feedback means absolutely squat to the folks managing the resources
and paying the bills. Find someone, your direct supervisor would probably be
a good place to start, who can open doors for you and get you access to the
folks who should be hearing your message.

Next, carefully *craft your message*. It is critically important to make a
strong case for accessibility that resonates with the folks you are
presenting to. If you do this well, the people you present to will contact
you immediately afterwards to have you present to the groups they manage, or
to their manager, and so on. In a large organization like yours, there are
many people who have an affect on accessibility: designers, developers,
writers, brand management folks, QA, IT, testers, and so on. The more groups
you can present to, the better. Get the conversation started, then let these
folks start considering how they're going to implement accessibility across
the resources they manage.

So how do you craft that message? The most engaging method I've found is *
demonstrating* the accessibility barriers on their own site. Show them how
the tool tips the designers are so fond of can't be triggered using the
keyboard. Turn off images and show them what happens on pages where linked
images have no alt text. Fire up a screen reader and show them how someone
tabbing through an improperly labeled form will have no idea what to put in
the text field. And so on. Trust me, if you demonstrate some show-stoppers,
people start making phone calls to get things fixed immediately. And they'll
want to hear more from you.

It has been my experience that when I talk to people about the basics --
types of disabilities, WCAG guidelines, making the moral, legal
and monetary arguments for accessibility -- I get polite nods at best.
Snores (literally) at worst. Sure, it makes sense to cover those issues
eventually, but I'd give those details to people who want more. To begin
with, you just want to get their attention.

The mistake I've made in the past is making the initial presentation to a
group of developers where I talk about how to make something accessible. In
my opinion, that should be a later-stage discussion. The initial discussion
should be to the manager of those developers convincing him that this is an
issue to be addressed. So forget about the tutorials. First, convince people
of the need to address accessibility.

And good luck!

Angela Colter
Usability Consultant
215-921-6677

Web: http://www.angelacolter.com
Twitter: @angelacolter