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Re: Building a business case for web accessibility

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From: Ratliff, Diana M.
Date: Aug 9, 2001 3:21PM

Kudos to you, Glenda! Sometimes the only way to get people to LISTEN is to
show 'em where the money is ...
The Job Accommodation Network, a service of the US DOL Office of Disability
Employment Policy has a page of accommodation facts at:
http://www.jan.wvu.edu/english/accfacts.htm
On it is the statement that 80% of the accommodations JAN recommends cost
less than $500.
I know we've found more research for some grant-writing we've done but I'll
have to look.
One angle to take, too, is to talk about the LOSS OF BUSINESS you inevitably
concur when you exclude a large population segment. (Since 1 in 5 Americans
have some type of disability, or will.) This is even more pertinent as you
look into the future. I'm one of those "baby boomers" you hear about in the
media, a HUGE market segment. Since the percentage of disabilities
increases with age, a whole BUNCH of people are going to expect websites to
be accessible in the very near future.
Given the passage of Section 508, too, all those people who deal with the
federal government will be expected to have accessible websites, and the
"ripples" from that legislation will inevitably spread.
And it's also just good marketing (not to mention common courtesy) to make
your product or service available to as many people as possible.
Diana Ratliff
Accessible Web Design Specialist
Adaptive Computing Technology (ACT) Center
Univ. of Missouri - Columbia
<EMAIL REMOVED>