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Re: The cost of accessibility

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Oct 5, 2010 5:18AM

I agree, if the team is skilled and inherently create accessible/compliant
content and environments any "additional" or even "costs" would be in
filling out the forms to satisfy the legislative conformance.

How do we determine the cost of spell checking documents or any other
"normal" process in creating content? This is the example I use when this
question arises in workshops. Would we stop spell checking documents if we
had to attach a cost to it? Would we make decisions on how much of a
document is spell checked depending on our perceived additional costs of
spell checking a document?

I chose spell checking a document for my example of this issue in workshops
because I could also argue that "forcing me to spell check my documents
impedes my creativity" which is another issue that arises when talking about
accessible/universal design.

As a Canadian I know that accessible document design is "relatively new" to
us so organizations are fearing an endless dribble of money with no ROI. As
with other countries who have had legislative criteria for a number of
years, the first fear of implementation is additional cost. As others have
pointed out the benefits of inclusive design affect a broader population.

As a personal aside I find it interesting that in the last two months my
"mantra" has been " we should no longer be accommodated for but included in"
digital document design.

Just pondering out loud....Cheers, Karen