Helping the Bottom Line
Cost needn't be a barrier to creating an accessible Web site. Forrester estimates that most Global 3,500 firms can rework their existing sites to make sure they're accessible for roughly $160,000, while the price tag for a new site or total redesign has dropped to about $60,000. For smaller companies starting from scratch or doing a total remodel, the cost of making sites accessible can be almost nothing, according to Web accessibility specialists.
Chris O'Kennon, the director of Portal Architecture for the Virginia Information Providers Network, the State of Virginia's government site, solved his accessibility problems simply enough. When he was ready to purchase content management software, he included Section 508 compliance in his request for proposals. "We think that with today's sophisticated content management tools, rather than trying to design a site that's 508 compliant, you might as well have two sites," O'Kennon says. "If you can do
that without extra cost or effort, why not?" He says that vendor Crown Peak Technologies' Advantage content management system, which dynamically generates pages, was compliant straight out of the box.
Indeed, following the Feds' lead and putting the onus on software vendors is a fine way to go. After the State of New York did a successful pilot test of LifeWorks, a Web-based employee information and resource product from Ceridian, it was ready to roll the site out to state employees. But New York requires all agency Web sites to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium's Wireless Accessibility Initiative priority one guidelines, and LifeWorks used graphical icons as links without providing an alternate text tag.
"We worked with Ceridian on a number of issues to improve accessibility for users with a wide range of disabilities," says Debi Orton, manager of Information Technology for the New York State Governor's Office of Employee Relations. Those included making sure there were alternatives to any PDF documents posted, that tables lined up properly when rendered by a non-visual user agent, and that any information available in audio format also included a text description. "We also took it a step further," says Orton, "and had discussions with Ceridian about how to improve the site's usability for everyone—things like cutting down the number of mouse clicks needed to access information and making sure that the site was tested in a number of browsers before being released. None of what we discussed was terribly technical, but it all helped to improve the site."
