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Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism

for

From: Jennifer Sutton
Date: Jun 14, 2010 6:06PM

Hello:

I wanted to follow up on the responses that
Katherine Mancuso received earlier so that I could add one more resource.

This response that Angela sent dovetails with my
own experiences, as do others I saw in the thread.

Although I realize that the original audience(s)
that Katherine is seeking to reach and address
may not be developers, I thought this book, the
Developer Evangelist's Handbook, by Christian
Heilmann, might be of interest to some.

Not everything in the book relates ONLY to
developers; much relates to anyone who is an accessibility advocate.

See these two links. the first one is the most recent:

Developer Evangelism book update – new chapter on
writing slides, new print version
http://www.wait-till-i.com/2009/12/15/developer-evangelism-book-update-new-chapter-on-writing-slides-new-print-version/

and

Wait till I come! » Blog Archive » The Developer
Evangelist handbook is Out:
http://www.wait-till-i.com/2009/07/28/the-developer-evangelist-handbook-is-out/


Jennifer
At 10:44 AM 6/9/2010, you wrote:
>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
>