5 ms·

What is the business value of accessibility?

paxys 5y ago
- Not getting sued is generally #1 - Large corporate customers have their own accessibility requirements for software they purchase, so if you want their business you have to be serious about it - You will have a slightly larger potential user base - Generates goodwill for the business - It helps your existing customers and fully abled users as well. Everyone can appreciate sensible keyboard shortcuts, tooltips, voice narration, good color contrast, font size etc. - It's generally the right thing to do
- jtolj 5y ago
  #1. I run a SAAS product that helps digital agencies scan/monitor/remediate sites for accessibility issues, and unless one of their clients was recently sued I have a pretty low success rate getting them to start a trial. There could be a lot of other factors at play (I'm terrible at sales, my landing page isn't good enough, etc), but my sense is that it's not something that is on the radar for most small/medium agencies and freelancers. These are the folks that are building a whole lot of the web, including the local businesses that people using assistive technologies would really like to be able to access easily.
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    Perhaps your marketing efforts are directed in the wrong place. You are trying to convince digital agencies that they will be able to convince their customers of the value of accessibility. This sort of second order education is hard to pull off. You might have more luck trying to raise awareness among businesses directly. If businesses start asking their agency/developer about accessibility, you'll probably see better uptake rates.
    - jtolj 5y ago
      Definitely a possibility, as it not a route I've tried. As I mentioned I'm terrible at marketing and sales ;). My own experience working in a digital agency was pretty much the same though. If a client was sued or received a demand letter, they came to us asking about accessibility. When we brought it to the client, they often just saw it as us trying to upsell them. In the end, we just shot for WCAG AA on everything whether the client asked for it or not and built the additional testing into our costs.
ericwood 5y ago
Making your website and apps usable to the highest number of people possible, and of course not opening yourself up to litigation. I've been on the receiving end and it is not fun! A lot of accessibility best-practices also benefit practically all of your users; keyboard navigation, proper contrast, etc. are a net positive to everyone.
forgotmypw17 5y ago
Your developers aren't embarrassed of their own work and stick around longer :)
- matz1 5y ago
  More likely developer will stick around longer because they don't have to do annoying work.
- jpttsn 5y ago
  And the point of TFA is to create this embarrassment by educating developers? I imagine this strategy is what remained after realizing not enough clients want to pay for accessibility.
burnished 5y ago
I can't personally say for software, but in any other arena 'accessibility' generally makes for better products/services. Curb cuts, for example, serve those with mobility issues. We think people permanently in wheelchairs, which is true, but pretty much every human is going to have mobility issues at some point in their life - injured, pregnant, just carrying too much, dead drunk, etc. So in short the business value of accessibility is similar to the business value of quality.

- Not getting sued is generally #1 - Large corporate customers have their own accessibility requirements for software they purchase, so if you want their business you have to be serious about it - You will have a slightly larger potential user base - Generates goodwill for the business - It helps your existing customers and fully abled users as well. Everyone can appreciate sensible keyboard shortcuts, tooltips, voice narration, good color contrast, font size etc. - It's generally the right thing to do

jtolj 5y ago
#1. I run a SAAS product that helps digital agencies scan/monitor/remediate sites for accessibility issues, and unless one of their clients was recently sued I have a pretty low success rate getting them to start a trial. There could be a lot of other factors at play (I'm terrible at sales, my landing page isn't good enough, etc), but my sense is that it's not something that is on the radar for most small/medium agencies and freelancers. These are the folks that are building a whole lot of the web, including the local businesses that people using assistive technologies would really like to be able to access easily.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  Perhaps your marketing efforts are directed in the wrong place. You are trying to convince digital agencies that they will be able to convince their customers of the value of accessibility. This sort of second order education is hard to pull off. You might have more luck trying to raise awareness among businesses directly. If businesses start asking their agency/developer about accessibility, you'll probably see better uptake rates.
  - jtolj 5y ago
    Definitely a possibility, as it not a route I've tried. As I mentioned I'm terrible at marketing and sales ;). My own experience working in a digital agency was pretty much the same though. If a client was sued or received a demand letter, they came to us asking about accessibility. When we brought it to the client, they often just saw it as us trying to upsell them. In the end, we just shot for WCAG AA on everything whether the client asked for it or not and built the additional testing into our costs.

ericwood 5y ago

Making your website and apps usable to the highest number of people possible, and of course not opening yourself up to litigation. I've been on the receiving end and it is not fun! A lot of accessibility best-practices also benefit practically all of your users; keyboard navigation, proper contrast, etc. are a net positive to everyone.

forgotmypw17 5y ago

Your developers aren't embarrassed of their own work and stick around longer :)

matz1 5y ago
More likely developer will stick around longer because they don't have to do annoying work.
jpttsn 5y ago
And the point of TFA is to create this embarrassment by educating developers? I imagine this strategy is what remained after realizing not enough clients want to pay for accessibility.

burnished 5y ago

I can't personally say for software, but in any other arena 'accessibility' generally makes for better products/services. Curb cuts, for example, serve those with mobility issues. We think people permanently in wheelchairs, which is true, but pretty much every human is going to have mobility issues at some point in their life - injured, pregnant, just carrying too much, dead drunk, etc. So in short the business value of accessibility is similar to the business value of quality.