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Re: Developing an Accessibility Team

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From: Pooja Nahata
Date: Aug 20, 2015 4:51PM

Dennis,

Sharing my thoughts;

1. Do most companies have a full-time team?
Pooja: Today, with the rise in accessibility compliance awareness most
companies are looking at onboarding dedicated resources to manage
Accessibility as a program than a one-off project. Some companies based on
their understanding take Accessibility team under testing or form a Center
of Excellence (CoE) that collaborates across skills/groups to deliver an
accessible product.

- How is the team organized?
Pooja: If its a CoE - team would comprise of Accessibility SME's that
understand the technical aspect of design, development and testing.

How did other organizations get support from management for a team?
Pooja: This is a tough one :-) Accessibility is a top-down approach which
means the business leaders need to be sensitized that Accessibility
compliance is a business requirement, tech stakeholders need to
accept accessibility as a defacto within design and development
best practices. Legal team need make accessibility mandate to mitigate
legal risk - Accessibility is a shared responsibility. One would need to
present a business case on why a focused Accessibility team is required -
stating the benefits around technical, legal, revenue, etc.

Hope this helps.

--
Regards
Pooja Nahata
Digital Accessibility Evangelist
Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
LinkedIn: http://in.linkedin.com/in/poojanahata
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Pooja_Nahata