WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Elevator speeches about accessibility

for

From: Ryan Hemphill
Date: Jun 11, 2012 9:35AM

I have a thought - you might not like it...but consider it for a moment.

I didn't get into web design to do social work.
I also didn't do it simply because there was money in it. (no designers I
know would ever quote that as a reason.)

So why DID I do it? It can be stressful. It requires me to be
ever-vigilant about new tech and whether or not I ought to learn it, which
would take away free time from other activities in life. It often involves
marketing professionals - also a peeve of most designers - and all the
emails, suggestions and other 'requests' they send my way.

So again - why do it?


The answer is simple - because it is stimulating and fun for me to be
CREATIVE and learn things that allow me to be MORE CREATIVE.

In short:

CREATIVITY = FUN = COMPELLING REASON FOR WEB DESIGN CAREER.



My belief? Forget the altruism. Forget the money. Focus on the
creativity, because at the core of their passion, THAT is why they do web
design. You want to get their attention? Show them how accessibility can
be wicked creative, cool and/or fun to execute.




That's my two...



Ryan




On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Scott González
< <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 10:27 AM, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> > Then I reel off the statistics (one in five Americans have a disability,
> > one in 10 have a serious disability, more than 20% of people with
> > disabilities live in poverty), and talk about how in the modern world,
> > being disenfranchised on the web is the same as being disenfranchised in
> > the world.
> >
>
> These numbers are higher than I expected and seem like a really good
> talking point. Do you have links to credible resources that show these
> statistics?
> > > >



--



Shipping is a Feature...Perhaps the Most Important Feature.