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Re: How do you make a someone understand the necessity of accessibility?

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jun 11, 2013 9:55AM

Give me a lever and a place to stand and I'll move the world.

You all offer great ideas for persuading others to take accessibility seriously. I did notice a couple common themes.

First, it sounds like you all found the right lever or motivation to persuade the other person. Second, your standing, your relationship to the people you wanted to convince helped make the lever more effective--sometimes it is easier to convince people if they see you as a colleague and other times it can be easier if they see you as an accessibility professional.

My thought is that, if you want to convince people to take accessibility seriously, start by understanding them as well as work to develop the most effective relationship possible for the situation. And if you fail to move them, take a breather and then try to figure out why your persuasion did not work.

Persuading people to take accessibility seriously is a major decision. You are most likely asking them to make a commitment to changing how they work and think. That takes a lot of effort, so it might take a lot of persuasion.