WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: What is happening with the update of section 508?

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From: Elle
Date: Nov 29, 2011 4:21PM

Ryan:

The only thing that comes to mind, with regards to "a compelling reason
(non "bleeding heart", mind you) that would attract the attention necessary
to change in the development community from 508 measures to a11y
version-ing" is to align accessibility standards to the greater set of web
development standards. I think we too often divorce accessibility from the
global body of design standards when fighting the good fight. I think that
weakens our argument. When I speak about device independence, streamlined
maintenance, and mobile platform support, I'm talking about valid,
semantic, accessible design, and our IT leaders listen. The business
stakeholders find value in those features, and business funds IT
development.

Additionally, accessibility advocates must find a way to speak the language
of project managers and IT managers (where the work happens), and that
language is anchored in cost and time savings. "How will I come in under
budget and on time?" My answer is usually something like, "If your team is
trained and builds correctly in the development phase, you will have fewer
UI and accessibility defects that would risk your launch date."

All of this is not to say that I don't bring up the "compliance" word
often, mind you. Overall, though, we need to understand our audience
better and find out what their measures of success are. Accessibility can
usually align to them.


Cheers,
Elle