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Re: pay for accessibility testing?

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From: Elle Waters
Date: May 16, 2013 2:36PM

Angela:

As our company also charges for this kind of work, and that might not be an affordable solution for you, I thought I'd offer some alternatives.

You could explore the possibility of working with a service like Loop 11 or even perhaps a local organization to gather user feedback. The potential wins of that are that it would be relatively low cost, if structured like a usability test and administered by your own staff. The potential down sides are that the results and any remediation plans are going to lack the expert guidance that many of the agencies on this list can provide. But, it's certainly an option.

Another idea is to hire people with disabilities, even if as contractors, for open positions. At my previous job, we worked with the NIB to run a pilot with one of our call centers. It was a huge success (and I do recommend them), and it also raised awareness at the company. The down side is one you're looking to address but one that might become critical or much bigger in scope: you will need to ensure that these individuals have equal access to *all* tools to perform their job duties. That was definitely our biggest hurdle, working with IT, security, and HR on a regular basis. This pilot impacted a lot more departments than originally anticipated, but it also impacted a lot more departments than originally anticipated. :)

Hope that helps,
Elle



On May 16, 2013, at 3:15 PM, "McKeithan, Thomas" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> NIB provides accessibility testing and remediation of web sites, applications and documents. Please contact me if you'd like an assessment.
>
> Respectfully,
> Thomas Lee McKeithan II
> Accessibility Program Manager
> National Industries for the Blind
> 1310 Braddock Place
> Alexandria, VA 22314
> (703)310-0586 Direct
> (703)477-6813 Cell
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
>
> "Believing is achieving, for if I believe, I can and I will achieve."
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