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Re: Deltek Accessibility

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jan 8, 2014 5:18AM

I will offer my suggestions for whatever they might be worth...


When you talk with them about improving the accessibility of their software, you should be prepared with an understanding of what end result you seek and how to explain that to them in a manner they will comprehend. The more specific you can be, the better--particularly if they don't have anyone that works there that knows much of anything about accessibility. It is also probably a good idea to know what the relationship is between your firm and theirs--both the working relationship and the contractual relationship. You may also need to be prepared to explain what is in it for them beyond keeping a good customer happy. And last but not least, you are going to want to talk timelines and commitments with them--even if it is just to bring up the subject as something that needs to be determined later.

The fact is that improving the accessibility of their existing product is going to require them to invest resources and time in the work which is. If they are like most companies, they probably have a large number of items they want to accomplish already and not enough resources or time to get them all done as quickly as they want. My thought is that you want to provide them with as much of the information as they need to make a decision about the work and schedule it so that you can get a commitment and timeline from them that produces the results you need.

If there are challenges in getting them to do this work, I suspect they most likely involve resources (people, time, and money) and the reasonableness of the goal.

The first just has to do with the fact that if they use their resources for one opportunity, those resources won't be available to take advantage of another opportunity. While accessibility may pose more of a question than normal for them since it might be an unknown quantity, the resource question is just a standard question everyone has to deal with--until we figure out a way for human beings to do 2 or more things simultaneously.

The second question is going to be based likely on a concern over knowing how much accessibility is enough. While most of us agree that accessibility is more of a way of doing things and thinking, they are likely more use to deal with concrete things. They are going to be thinking along the lines of wanting to know what feature set or bug fixes you want. However, you might be able to resolve those questions by being as specific as possible and working out an acceptance process with them that takes the mystery out of knowing when enough is enough.

Hopefully, something in what I said will be useful to you. I wish you good fortune in your endeavour.

Tim