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Re: Remediation Cost Versus Inclusive Design Cost

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Sep 8, 2017 11:40AM

I think it is extremely tough to find stats specifically for accessibility or inclusive design.

You should be able to find stats on how much it costs to fix defects at various stages of a project (including post-implementation). I can't imagine there is a reason why addressing accessibility defects would have a significantly different cost than other defects like usability, functionality, or security. However, you might need to persuade your audience that accessibility defects aren't really any different than any other defect when it comes to repairing them. They all require that people have some level of knowledge about that type of defect in order to be able to identify and fix them. The more competent their knowledge level, the easier it will be to identify and fix the defect.

I think you should be able to prove that the cost of addressing defects in design and development are so much less than fixing them as part of remediation that there is no way you could ever run a remediation project for less than what it would have cost you to have addressed the defects during design and development.

Also, you might want to find examples where "remediation" can't fix the problem. That is the remediation needed to fix some problems can involve completely redesigning something from scratch.

Hopefully that helps somewhat.

Thanks,
Tim