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Re: Question about Accessibility plugins

for

From: Scott Tate
Date: Jun 7, 2019 12:15PM

I wouldn't necessarily say the fines are over stated. From our view (Blndspt.com) we see settlements between 20 and 50k regularly. Some folks tend to ratchet that up a bit depending on the target client.

However, let me give you a quick example of overlays:

We built a quote for a client to remediate an entire site for x dollars. 3 years ago, they got quotes for the same thing. At the time, they decided the price was too high to fix their 100+ pages and decided to go the overlay route. As everyone out there does, 3 years later, they've been paying for the overlay annual fees, and guess how much they've spent in 3 years? You guessed it, MORE THAN X!

As a result, they are no farther along, have literally learning nothing about accessibility, are in the same position they were in 3 years ago having spent that budget on a band aid instead of fixing the problem. From our view, the vast majority of folks that use overlays generally:
1) Spend the amount they would have spent to fix the problem within 24 months (or less)
2) Never learn what it means to build a culture of accessibility in your organization
3) Never end up fixing root issues
4) End up spending the same amount again anyway a few years down the road to finally fix the issues.

Just our perspective. We work with Karl a lot, so we read all of the overlay articles, and we wholeheartedly agree that overlays are making the problem worse in the world.

Cheers,
Scott Tate
Chief Information Officer
http://www.blndspt.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Thursday, June 6, 2019 1:04 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question about Accessibility plugins

Check out the Accessibility overlays don't work website:
https://overlaysdontwork.com/
karl Groves also has multiple articles on the topic and I agree with them.
You can Google "karl groves accessibility overlays"

Looking at this particular homepage I notice they exaggerate the fines levied under ADA lawsuits ($50000 for first, $100000 for subsequent, I've never heard those numbers anywhere, under the ADA you cannot award damages, only fees, you can under some state regulations, particularly California, but those are not mentioned on the site).
Also the alt text for the accessibility statistics is inserted kind of inside an unrelated sentence, I would fail that under 1.3.2 WCAG content order, the site itself is not perfect.
It also way overdoses on ARIA landmark regions, though I would flag it as a usability concern, not a fail.

The big question, if this is an overlay that you purchse. Is the vendor willing to assume full responsibility and indemnify your website team from any litigation claims?
That is real accessibility guarantee.
Another approach would be to install the plugin then run a full automated and manual accessibility testing of the content with the plugin installed. That will ultimately give you a state of accessibility of the particular site using the particular plugin.
Again, if you are paying for it, that might be part of the contract, any issues discovered through the process would have to be remedied by the plugin provider at no cost to you.



On 6/6/19, Mike Barlow < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I'm working with a company who is developing a site (using Wordpress)
> and their developers installed the "Userway Web Accessibility Widgit
> <https://userway.org/>" and wanted my opinion of it.
> Now I have my own opinions of "magic bullets" that you can just "drop
> this in and your site is accessible", and I've seen a couple of them
> over the years and have yet to find one that I would include in any
> site I was developing.
> I also did some searching for feedback on the Userway widgit - one
> from "A Bright Clear Web
> <https://www.abrightclearweb.com/the-userway-web-accessibility-widget-does-it-boost-accessibility/>"
> had both good and bad comments about it, and there was even a question
> on Quora
> <https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-of-accessibility-widget-like-
> userway-org-Do-they-help-small-sites-to-be-adhere-with-accessibility-l
> aws>
> about it.
>
> But I want to get some real expert opinions from this group before I
> tell the customer what I think.
>
> So, anyone out there with any experience (both good and bad) about the
> Userway widgit???
>
> TIA.
> *Mike Barlow*
> Development Manager
> Web Accessibility/Section 508 SME
>
> Lancaster, Pa 17601
> Office: 732.835-7557
> Cell: 732.682.8226
> e-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


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