Web Accessibility on the cheap

It's relatively easy to make a website accessible. There are tools and instructions and the HTML -- while sometimes obscure -- isn't exactly rocket science. So why aren't more large websites accessible as a matter of course? There are three perceptions that I keep hearing from potential clients:

Perception #1: Why are we putting in all this work for the 17 (THE random number) blind people that use the site?

Reality: there are millions of people in the U.S. with disabilities. 20% of the population have at least one form of disability and the percentage rises with age. In my middle-class town, 34% of the senior citizens are disabled. The Census Bureau estimates that people with disablilties control over $1 trillion in assets. That is a lot of market share to write off. If your competitors aren't already looking at that market, they will be.

Perception#2: The web site will be ugly and all the cool features will have to be taken out.
Reality: There are very beautiful web sites that are accessible. Check out cssZenGarden.com for examples of accessibility and web standards. Scripts and applets can be made accessible. Flash has accessibility features, if the developer uses them. It takes a learning curve for the developers, but once the training is integrated into the development department there are usually accessible ways to accomplish the effects you want.

Perception #3 : It will cost a fortune to make the site accessible — we have other priorities.
Reality: There is a cost to accessibility, but spread over time with planning, it can have a minimal impact on the organization. Certainly, a big project to overhaul the entire site, hiring outside developers and Accessibility consultants is very costly. But with a relatively small investment in training, a plan to make pages accessible as part of the natural turnover of the web site, and implementation of project metrics to insure on-going accessibility maintenance, results in an accessible web site that enhances your marketing stratagy.

Wouldn't you want to have an attractive web site, that appeals to 20% of the population that you are not currently reaching that can be implemented with minimal cost impact? Not to mention that accessibility and web standards has been shown to decrease costs of web site maintenance and improve server throughput. What's not to love?

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