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Re: The cost of accessibility

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Oct 4, 2010 3:12PM

Denis Boudreau wrote:

> For a study we're conducting with the Quebec government, I'm trying
> to evaluate general cost of accessibility when building a website.

Define "accessibility". If it means being accessible to all people, the cost
is infinite. Anyone who thinks otherwise just ignores a considerable part of
mankind.

> Back in 2004, Andy Budd [1] was saying it was around 2%. I tend to
> agree with him, though my own experience suggests it's more like 2 to
> 5%.

83.76% of all percentages have just been made up, and the remaining 17.24%
have been miscalculated. This is hardly an exception, given the (lack of)
citations and references.

> So, if you had a fully-skilled, fully-experienced team at your
> disposal (where everyone knows what they're doing), in a website
> redesign project, what percentage of your budget would you reserve to
> cover the cost of accessibility?

That's a completely different question.

The assumptions are highly unrealistic, but independently of that, I would
reserve 5% if for a commercial site (mainlty because accessibility tends to
promote usability in general). That's just because I cannot imagine myself
defending a higher percentage.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/