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Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)

From: Katherine Mancuso
Date: Tue, Jun 08 2010 5:39PM
Subject: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
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Hi Web-AIMers -

Long time reader, first time questioner, please be gentle :-).

Does anyone here have a lot of experience with introducing web
accessibility into a corporation?

I'm not going to tell you where I'm working this summer for fear of
trouble, but this is a large division of a large company responsible
for hundreds of professional web properties - a company that also
makes physical facilities and prides themselves on them being
accessible to many different kinds of people including people with
disabilities, and that in the future sees physical-digital convergence
as a huge business initiative. They have one web creative lead
working on accessibility as a side project, who isn't really trained
but wants to evangelize for the importance of this. And me, as an
intern, who also has other responsibilities. The main thing the two
of us have agreed I need to do here is make the case for
accessibility, and for people to work more full-time on it, or to
bring in a company as a contractor that specializes in this, by doing
a lot of teaching to a lot of people.

However, I've always worked at a small research center focused on
accessibility; I've taken classes but none of them covered enterprise
level web accessibility (there's one chapter in the big pink web
accessibility book). I have a big job. I know what the legal issues
are, and how to make the business case, how to teach about universal
design, and the basics I need to teach them. The thing I don't know
is the kind of processes I need to recommend to an organization this
large, and how accessibility work is different at this scale.

I need pointers to resources that will help me: people who might be
willing to talk to me who have done this kind of work, things I should
read about enterprise level work, listservs I should be on, etc.

In addition to general resources, specific questions for now, more may
follow later:
1) We need to convince the company to buy one of the large
accessibility packages that operates with their bug tracker to clean
up the static web pages. What factors do we need to
consider/understand in evaluating which one we should recommend?
2) Has anyone done a workshop specifically for a QA team? What factors
do I need to consider with this audience that I might not think about
in a general web accessibility tutorial?

thanks so very much,
Katherine

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Mancuso: crusader of community art, social technology, & disability

Research:
Center for Assistive Technology & Environmental Access (http://www.catea.org)
Georgia Tech, Digital Media (http://dm.gatech.edu)

Community:
The Vesuvius Group: metaverse community builders
(http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com)
Gimp Girl Community Liaison/Research Fellow (http://www.gimpgirl.com)
Alternate ROOTS: arts*community*activism (http://www.alternateroots.org)
Students Working Against Negative Stereotypes of Autism, Georgia Tech.
( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )

Contact in the web, the metaverse, the world:
http://twitter.com/musingvirtual
http://muse.dreamwidth.org
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymancuso
SL: Muse Carmona
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Denis Boudreau
Date: Tue, Jun 08 2010 10:24PM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | Next message →

Hi Katherine,

I think you'll find plenty of information on the subject here: <http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/Overview.html>;.

Financial factors usually prove particularily interesting for private companies, as can be legal and policy factors.

Extract:
Factors in a Business Case for Web Accessibility

The different aspects of the business case for Web accessibility are presented in detail in the following pages:

Social Factors addresses the role of Web accessibility in providing equal opportunity for people with disabilities; the overlap with digital divide issues; and benefits to people without disabilities, including older people, people with low literacy and people not fluent in the language, people with low bandwidth connections to the Internet, people using older technologies, and new and infrequent web users.
Technical Factors addresses interoperability, quality, reducing site development and maintenance time, reducing server load, enabling content on different configurations, and being prepared for advanced web technologies.
Financial Factors addresses the financial benefits of increased website use, for example, from engine optimization (SEO); direct cost savings; considerations for initial costs and on-going costs; and ways to decrease costs.
Legal and Policy Factors addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other organizations in the form of laws, policies, regulations, standards, guidelines, directives, communications, orders, or other types of documents.
To help develop a customized business case, each of these pages starts with questions to help identify how the factors apply to a specific organization.



--
Denis Boudreau
www.twitter.com/dboudreau




On 2010-06-08, at 6:41 PM, Katherine Mancuso wrote:

> Hi Web-AIMers -
>
> Long time reader, first time questioner, please be gentle :-).
>
> Does anyone here have a lot of experience with introducing web
> accessibility into a corporation?
>
> I'm not going to tell you where I'm working this summer for fear of
> trouble, but this is a large division of a large company responsible
> for hundreds of professional web properties - a company that also
> makes physical facilities and prides themselves on them being
> accessible to many different kinds of people including people with
> disabilities, and that in the future sees physical-digital convergence
> as a huge business initiative. They have one web creative lead
> working on accessibility as a side project, who isn't really trained
> but wants to evangelize for the importance of this. And me, as an
> intern, who also has other responsibilities. The main thing the two
> of us have agreed I need to do here is make the case for
> accessibility, and for people to work more full-time on it, or to
> bring in a company as a contractor that specializes in this, by doing
> a lot of teaching to a lot of people.
>
> However, I've always worked at a small research center focused on
> accessibility; I've taken classes but none of them covered enterprise
> level web accessibility (there's one chapter in the big pink web
> accessibility book). I have a big job. I know what the legal issues
> are, and how to make the business case, how to teach about universal
> design, and the basics I need to teach them. The thing I don't know
> is the kind of processes I need to recommend to an organization this
> large, and how accessibility work is different at this scale.
>
> I need pointers to resources that will help me: people who might be
> willing to talk to me who have done this kind of work, things I should
> read about enterprise level work, listservs I should be on, etc.
>
> In addition to general resources, specific questions for now, more may
> follow later:
> 1) We need to convince the company to buy one of the large
> accessibility packages that operates with their bug tracker to clean
> up the static web pages. What factors do we need to
> consider/understand in evaluating which one we should recommend?
> 2) Has anyone done a workshop specifically for a QA team? What factors
> do I need to consider with this audience that I might not think about
> in a general web accessibility tutorial?
>
> thanks so very much,
> Katherine
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Katherine Mancuso: crusader of community art, social technology, & disability
>
> Research:
> Center for Assistive Technology & Environmental Access (http://www.catea.org)
> Georgia Tech, Digital Media (http://dm.gatech.edu)
>
> Community:
> The Vesuvius Group: metaverse community builders
> (http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com)
> Gimp Girl Community Liaison/Research Fellow (http://www.gimpgirl.com)
> Alternate ROOTS: arts*community*activism (http://www.alternateroots.org)
> Students Working Against Negative Stereotypes of Autism, Georgia Tech.
> ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
>
> Contact in the web, the metaverse, the world:
> http://twitter.com/musingvirtual
> http://muse.dreamwidth.org
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymancuso
> SL: Muse Carmona
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

From: Nancy Johnson
Date: Wed, Jun 09 2010 9:15AM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | Next message →

Has anyone with a disability ever complained to the company that the
site is not accessible? This also might be an incentive.

Nancy

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 11:24 PM, Denis Boudreau < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi Katherine,
>
> I think you'll find plenty of information on the subject here: <http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/Overview.html>;.
>
> Financial factors usually prove particularily interesting for private companies, as can be legal and policy factors.
>
> Extract:
> Factors in a Business Case for Web Accessibility
>
> The different aspects of the business case for Web accessibility are presented in detail in the following pages:
>
> Social Factors addresses the role of Web accessibility in providing equal opportunity for people with disabilities; the overlap with digital divide issues; and benefits to people without disabilities, including older people, people with low literacy and people not fluent in the language, people with low bandwidth connections to the Internet, people using older technologies, and new and infrequent web users.
> Technical Factors addresses interoperability, quality, reducing site development and maintenance time, reducing server load, enabling content on different configurations, and being prepared for advanced web technologies.
> Financial Factors addresses the financial benefits of increased website use, for example, from engine optimization (SEO); direct cost savings; considerations for initial costs and on-going costs; and ways to decrease costs.
> Legal and Policy Factors addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other organizations in the form of laws, policies, regulations, standards, guidelines, directives, communications, orders, or other types of documents.
> To help develop a customized business case, each of these pages starts with questions to help identify how the factors apply to a specific organization.
>
>
>
> --
> Denis Boudreau
> www.twitter.com/dboudreau
>
>
>
>
> On 2010-06-08, at 6:41 PM, Katherine Mancuso wrote:
>
>> Hi Web-AIMers -
>>
>> Long time reader, first time questioner, please be gentle :-).
>>
>> Does anyone here have a lot of experience with introducing web
>> accessibility into a corporation?
>>
>> I'm not going to tell you where I'm working this summer for fear of
>> trouble, but this is a large division of a large company responsible
>> for hundreds of professional web properties - a company that also
>> makes physical facilities and prides themselves on them being
>> accessible to many different kinds of people including people with
>> disabilities, and that in the future sees physical-digital convergence
>> as a huge business initiative.  They have one web creative lead
>> working on accessibility as a side project, who isn't really trained
>> but wants to evangelize for the importance of this.  And me, as an
>> intern, who also has other responsibilities.  The main thing the two
>> of us have agreed I need to do here is make the case for
>> accessibility, and for people to work more full-time on it, or to
>> bring in a company as a contractor that specializes in this, by doing
>> a lot of teaching to a lot of people.
>>
>> However, I've always worked at a small research center focused on
>> accessibility; I've taken classes but none of them covered enterprise
>> level web accessibility (there's one chapter in the big pink web
>> accessibility book).  I have a big job. I know what the legal issues
>> are, and how to make the business case, how to teach about universal
>> design, and the basics I need to teach them.  The thing I don't know
>> is the kind of processes I need to recommend to an organization this
>> large, and how accessibility work is different at this scale.
>>
>> I need pointers to resources that will help me: people who might be
>> willing to talk to me who have done this kind of work, things I should
>> read about enterprise level work, listservs I should be on, etc.
>>
>> In addition to general resources, specific questions for now, more may
>> follow later:
>> 1) We need to convince the company to buy one of the large
>> accessibility packages that operates with their bug tracker to clean
>> up the static web pages. What factors do we need to
>> consider/understand in evaluating which one we should recommend?
>> 2) Has anyone done a workshop specifically for a QA team? What factors
>> do I need to consider with this audience that I might not think about
>> in a general web accessibility tutorial?
>>
>> thanks so very much,
>> Katherine
>>
>> --
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Katherine Mancuso: crusader of community art, social technology, & disability
>>
>> Research:
>> Center for Assistive Technology & Environmental Access (http://www.catea.org)
>> Georgia Tech, Digital Media (http://dm.gatech.edu)
>>
>> Community:
>> The Vesuvius Group: metaverse community builders
>> (http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com)
>> Gimp Girl Community Liaison/Research Fellow (http://www.gimpgirl.com)
>> Alternate ROOTS: arts*community*activism (http://www.alternateroots.org)
>> Students Working Against Negative Stereotypes of Autism, Georgia Tech.
>> ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
>>
>> Contact in the web, the metaverse, the world:
>> http://twitter.com/musingvirtual
>> http://muse.dreamwidth.org
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymancuso
>> SL: Muse Carmona
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>

From: Jewell, John H
Date: Wed, Jun 09 2010 12:27PM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | Next message →

Katherine,

I would suggest that one of the first steps is understanding at least at
some level how the company works, both in general and specifically with
its web operations. Some corporations - like some large government
agencies - are highly structured so that identifying where to introduce
web accessibility is key. Others are highly diversified, with each part
considering themselves relatively independent and unique; their web
operations can be just as diverse with many web masters who may have a
varying degree of autonomy. It helps to have a sense of both the formal
organization chart and the real power structure, how decisions are made,
how management and staff want or need to see the business case for
decision making, etc. There may be previous projects - either successes
or failures - that help you understand what works within that company.

It may also help you identify useful examples of relevant corporate web
accessibility or lack of accessibility. For example, the Target lawsuit
and subsequent settlement make a good case for web shopping models.

It is my experience that you begin best by listening and understanding
the business/community, then developing the model and approach for
digital accessibility that works for that setting, whether in the
corporate or government world.

John Jewell

From: Angela Colter
Date: Wed, Jun 09 2010 12:42PM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | Next message →

Hi Katherine,

I can't say that I have a LOT of experience introducing web accessibility
into a corporation. But I do have some. I'm doing it right now. So here's my
take on how you may want to approach it.

The very first thing I would recommend you do is *find an advocate* higher
up the food chain. As an intern -- and please don't take this the wrong way
-- your feedback means absolutely squat to the folks managing the resources
and paying the bills. Find someone, your direct supervisor would probably be
a good place to start, who can open doors for you and get you access to the
folks who should be hearing your message.

Next, carefully *craft your message*. It is critically important to make a
strong case for accessibility that resonates with the folks you are
presenting to. If you do this well, the people you present to will contact
you immediately afterwards to have you present to the groups they manage, or
to their manager, and so on. In a large organization like yours, there are
many people who have an affect on accessibility: designers, developers,
writers, brand management folks, QA, IT, testers, and so on. The more groups
you can present to, the better. Get the conversation started, then let these
folks start considering how they're going to implement accessibility across
the resources they manage.

So how do you craft that message? The most engaging method I've found is *
demonstrating* the accessibility barriers on their own site. Show them how
the tool tips the designers are so fond of can't be triggered using the
keyboard. Turn off images and show them what happens on pages where linked
images have no alt text. Fire up a screen reader and show them how someone
tabbing through an improperly labeled form will have no idea what to put in
the text field. And so on. Trust me, if you demonstrate some show-stoppers,
people start making phone calls to get things fixed immediately. And they'll
want to hear more from you.

It has been my experience that when I talk to people about the basics --
types of disabilities, WCAG guidelines, making the moral, legal
and monetary arguments for accessibility -- I get polite nods at best.
Snores (literally) at worst. Sure, it makes sense to cover those issues
eventually, but I'd give those details to people who want more. To begin
with, you just want to get their attention.

The mistake I've made in the past is making the initial presentation to a
group of developers where I talk about how to make something accessible. In
my opinion, that should be a later-stage discussion. The initial discussion
should be to the manager of those developers convincing him that this is an
issue to be addressed. So forget about the tutorials. First, convince people
of the need to address accessibility.

And good luck!

Angela Colter
Usability Consultant
215-921-6677

Web: http://www.angelacolter.com
Twitter: @angelacolter

From: John E. Brandt
Date: Wed, Jun 09 2010 2:36PM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | Next message →

You've got some good responses so far...

This is not a one-time deal and this is not something that will be resolved
with technology.

Assuming you get the buy-in (at the highest level possible), accessibility
needs to be made part of the sustaining culture - and that is the hard part.
This will require lots of training, review and vigilance.

Assuming there a lots of folks in the organization creating content, it is
essential that they create/develop the initial materials/documents in an
accessible manner for it to be cost effective. So you need to start your
training with the basics.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of positive reinforcement out there for
doing this; just a lot of negative reinforcement (A process in which a
response increases in frequency due to the avoidance, escape or removal of
an aversive stimulus from the animal's environment). So, you may need to be
a cheerleader too.

Good luck.

John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com

From: Jennifer Sutton
Date: Mon, Jun 14 2010 6:06PM
Subject: Re: enterprise-level accessibility evangelism
← Previous message | No next message

Hello:

I wanted to follow up on the responses that
Katherine Mancuso received earlier so that I could add one more resource.

This response that Angela sent dovetails with my
own experiences, as do others I saw in the thread.

Although I realize that the original audience(s)
that Katherine is seeking to reach and address
may not be developers, I thought this book, the
Developer Evangelist's Handbook, by Christian
Heilmann, might be of interest to some.

Not everything in the book relates ONLY to
developers; much relates to anyone who is an accessibility advocate.

See these two links. the first one is the most recent:

Developer Evangelism book update – new chapter on
writing slides, new print version
http://www.wait-till-i.com/2009/12/15/developer-evangelism-book-update-new-chapter-on-writing-slides-new-print-version/

and

Wait till I come! » Blog Archive » The Developer
Evangelist handbook is Out:
http://www.wait-till-i.com/2009/07/28/the-developer-evangelist-handbook-is-out/


Jennifer
At 10:44 AM 6/9/2010, you wrote:
>Hi Katherine,
>
>I can't say that I have a LOT of experience introducing web accessibility
>into a corporation. But I do have some. I'm doing it right now. So here's my
>take on how you may want to approach it.
>
>The very first thing I would recommend you do is *find an advocate* higher
>up the food chain. As an intern -- and please don't take this the wrong way
>-- your feedback means absolutely squat to the folks managing the resources
>and paying the bills. Find someone, your direct supervisor would probably be
>a good place to start, who can open doors for you and get you access to the
>folks who should be hearing your message.
>
>Next, carefully *craft your message*. It is critically important to make a
>strong case for accessibility that resonates with the folks you are
>presenting to. If you do this well, the people you present to will contact
>you immediately afterwards to have you present to the groups they manage, or
>to their manager, and so on. In a large organization like yours, there are
>many people who have an affect on accessibility: designers, developers,
>writers, brand management folks, QA, IT, testers, and so on. The more groups
>you can present to, the better. Get the conversation started, then let these
>folks start considering how they're going to implement accessibility across
>the resources they manage.
>
>So how do you craft that message? The most engaging method I've found is *
>demonstrating* the accessibility barriers on their own site. Show them how
>the tool tips the designers are so fond of can't be triggered using the
>keyboard. Turn off images and show them what happens on pages where linked
>images have no alt text. Fire up a screen reader and show them how someone
>tabbing through an improperly labeled form will have no idea what to put in
>the text field. And so on. Trust me, if you demonstrate some show-stoppers,
>people start making phone calls to get things fixed immediately. And they'll
>want to hear more from you.
>
>It has been my experience that when I talk to people about the basics --
>types of disabilities, WCAG guidelines, making the moral, legal
>and monetary arguments for accessibility -- I get polite nods at best.
>Snores (literally) at worst. Sure, it makes sense to cover those issues
>eventually, but I'd give those details to people who want more. To begin
>with, you just want to get their attention.
>
>The mistake I've made in the past is making the initial presentation to a
>group of developers where I talk about how to make something accessible. In
>my opinion, that should be a later-stage discussion. The initial discussion
>should be to the manager of those developers convincing him that this is an
>issue to be addressed. So forget about the tutorials. First, convince people
>of the need to address accessibility.
>
>And good luck!
>
>Angela Colter
>Usability Consultant
>215-921-6677
>
>Web: http://www.angelacolter.com
>Twitter: @angelacolter
>