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Re: Dealing with accessibility issues in web development service contracts

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From: Elle Waters
Date: Feb 12, 2012 10:30AM

Birkir:

I will bring some samples of contract language that may prove useful.


Thanks,
Elle



On Feb 12, 2012, at 11:00 AM, "Birkir R. Gunnarsson" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi everyone
>
> Thanks for your responses.
> Elle, I would be excited to sit down with you and others at Access U
> to discuss the matter.
> The contract was very lacking in specifications of accessibility and
> how it would be tested, there was merely a very general statement that
> the site should be accessible without any specifications as to what
> exactly that entailed. Iceland is simply so new to this that I am the
> only authority on the matter (and I have lots to learn myself).
> Any samples of contract language, what would be satisfactory testing
> etc, would definitely be much appreciated and, yes, I realize more and
> more that this is perhaps better handled in dialog than through email.
> Per my experience, so far, I'd probably assume WCAG 2.0 AA, with a few
> exceptions (I like the recent WebAIM blog on WCAG 2.0 considerations),
> I would probably have to allow for a few WCAG evaluator errors, as we
> know that WCAG 2.0 compliance by itself is not entirely indicative of
> usability, and there are, perhaps, a few problems in automated
> checking.
> I'd also want to go through the 2 or 3 most commonly performed tasks
> or processes on that particular website with a screen magnifier and
> two screen readers (NVDA, most recent, and second to most recent sr,
> probably Jaws), and demand necessary fixes to problems discovered in
> these processes be implemented as part of the service contract.
> Are requirements along these lines something frequently put into
> development contracts?
> You often get organizations that are, on the surface, very committed
> to accessibility, but lack detailed directions of what is meant by
> that.
> Are there any samples of actual development contract statements out
> there regarding the definition of accessibility, or anything people
> would be able and willing to share as blueprint?
> Cheers
> -B
>
> On 2/12/12, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Birkir-
>>
>> Trying to force accessibility into a complex project after it has been
>> developed can be very difficult and, as you note, expensive. We have
>> worked with a few clients who decided that it would be more
>> cost-effective to simply re-build the site with accessibility
>> requirements (and a new design, other web standards, best practices,
>> etc.), rather than continue the often never-ending battle of
>> implementing accessibility hacks and fixes into a site that does not
>> support them and that is administered by third party vendors who don't
>> care about or understand accessibility.
>>
>> In one case a client was quoted a 7 digit number to implement
>> accessibility alone (which, by the way, was absurdly over-priced). The
>> price to rebuild the entire site with a knowledgeable vendor and also
>> include accessibility was only a bit more. It was an obvious decision
>> to start over.
>>
>> Most sites only last a few years. If you're considering a significant
>> update or rebuild in the future, you may be better off waiting. If
>> not, the cost efficiency of your site updates will be proportional to
>> the accessibility knowledge of your vendor, so you might start with
>> educating them rather than asking them to implement accessibility
>> items they likely will not understand (but are happy to charge an
>> hourly rate to attempt to implement).
>>
>> Jared Smith
>> WebAIM.org
>>