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Re: What to ask Web designers?

for

From: Cathy Mar
Date: Nov 18, 2004 12:40PM

Glenda,

When you checklist is complete, can you please share it so I may use
it for reference?

Thanks,
Cath

>>> <EMAIL REMOVED> 11/18/2004 11:32:06 AM >>>

Thanks Phil, I'll massage your suggestions and add them to the
checklist.

I definitely agree that it's hard for someone who doesn't know
anything
about Web accessibility to evaluate potential contractors. That is my
whole
reason for developing this checklist. I'm thinking that some managers
want
to do the "right thing" [remember I'm in Canada, so legal requirements
aren't an issue, yet], but they don't have a clue what to ask when
choosing
a Web designer -- so they don't venture into Web accessibility
territory.

I hoping my mini course "Web Accessibility: What Is It All About?" will
ease
them into that unknown territory.

Any more thoughts for the checklist??

Cheers,
Glenda

-----Original Message-----
From: chnnb [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 11:04 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] What to ask Web designers?



> Any more ideas out there?

It's pretty hard for someone who doesn't know anything about web
accessibility to evaluate whether a potential contractor has the
requisite
skills in accessible web design or not, since that person will not be
able
to evaluate most answers properly. Currently, anyone can say they
understand web accessibility and web accessibility guidelines and even
claim
that the sites they design are all fully accessible without
necessarily
having the requisite skills.

But here are a couple other ideas of questions to ask potential
contractors
anyways:

1. Have they ever done any user testing of a website with people with
disabilities? (either on their own site, or for a client)
- the manager would probably just have to take their word on the
answer
to this one

2. Is their own company website designed to meet any set of
accessibility
guidelines? Which one(s)?
- you could provide managers with a list of possible answers and
even
prioritize that list: i.e. W3C WAI Guidelines, Bobby Approved, Valid
HTML,
etc...

3. Does the company have an "Accessibility" policy (either for their
own
site, or for the sites they design)
- this is one that could be checked by visiting the company's site
or the
site referenced

I would think that these last two questions would be useful in
narrowing the
field of potential contractors. The first question is not one that
very
many small design companies will likely say yes to, but it may not be
feasible for a small non-profit organization to expect that their web
design
company has experience in accessibility design testing unless the
small
non-profit has a large web budget and is willing to pursue only the
top
designers in the field.

Phil.

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