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Re: Developing an Accessibility Team

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Aug 20, 2015 4:44PM

We believe that the best workflow is to have everyone do the basic accessibility requirements for all files — Word, PowerPoint, Excel, InDesign layouts, HTML webpage content — and regardless of whether this is for internal working drafts, internal communications, or public-facing documents. Accessibility is everyone's responsibility, not just for a designated team.

It helps if the authors have pre-made templates ready for them to use, making it easier for them to format Word documents quicker and more accurately, for example.

Then an accessibility team takes over to test, remediate, and polish the final file.

Sure reduces the time and labor over the long run!

Whether the team is full- or part-time depends upon your volume, but accessibility is their main job. Also, an accessibility technician for documents (ie, Word and PDF) needs different skills than one for websites and apps. Don't try to get all the knowledge in one person.

I think a lawsuit, along with public humiliation and guilt, is probably the most effective way to get upper management to pay attention.

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Bevi Chagnon | www.PubCom.com
Technologists, Consultants, Trainers, Designers, and Developers
for publishing & communication
| Acrobat PDF | Digital Media | XML and Automated Workflows
| GPO | Print | Desktop Publishing | Sec. 508 Accessibility | EPUBs
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Dennis Deacon
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 5:54 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Developing an Accessibility Team

Our organization has been engaged in a digital accessibility remediation project. In parallel, we've also been working on developing an ongoing program.

One aspect that we're working on is building an accessibility team. As part of that, we're initially interested in a few things:

- Do most companies have a full-time team?
- How is the team organized?
- How did other organizations get support from management for a team?

Any other information on building an accessibility team would be greatly appreciated. Our organization is in the transportation industry with an eCommerce website and mobile app.

Thanks in advance.

Dennis Deacon