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Re: Dealing with accessibility issues in web development service contracts

for

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Feb 13, 2012 8:33AM

Birkir,

You might find our " IT Acquisition Accessibility Compliance Program" useful, or at least interesting! It includes sample documents and other information to ensure contracts sufficiently address accessibility requirements.

http://www.mass.gov/anf/research-and-tech/it-pols-stnds-and-guidance/tech-guidance/accessibility-guidance/it-acquisition-access-compliance-prog/

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 11:01 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Dealing with accessibility issues in web development service contracts

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
>