The thing I find perplexing is that there is a wealth of evidence and information that points to accessibility equalling profitability but we still fall backwards.
This - to me - is it! If we put aside the morality of deliberately ignoring a section of society, and look at it from the perspective of someone that - for example - just wants to make as much money as possible from their e-shop, then why would you not make it as accessible as you possibly can?
Some shop owners may say that their target market (ski / climbing equipment, or bicycles, for example) is not those requiring assistive technology, but those people have husbands / wives / partners / children / siblings / parents / friends too: people who may well be the target market.
And sometimes, accessibility is not only about those needing extra technology. Sometimes, the specific target audience have stressful days, or they are distracted, or it's sunny and not easy to see the screen... all kinds of reasons.
Bloody hell, even if you don't care about the 'soft stuff' like morals and rights 🤦, you must care about making more money, right? 😀
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
It is really interesting to have someone recite my view on it so accurately. In fact I am not one who gives much credence to people who try and get accessibility enforced using the "soft stuff", as if society cared about morals and rights we wouldn't have so many issues in the world! 😋
I actually have a calculator I use as part of pitching for work where I show how quickly accessibility can pay for itself, especially when baking it from day 1 as part of the spec adds maybe 5-10% in costs (and that is for something complex).
I might do a post on that calculator actually, as it may help a lot of devs who sit on the "soft stuff" side of things persuade their bosses that they can easily get clients to pay for the extra work.
In fact you made me wonder if I should share all of my "secrets" now that I am taking the company in a different direction such as how I convey the scale of the market opportunity and the knock on effects of how making a site accessible can have huge benefits to a business.
For example people with disabilities might not be able to go anywhere else (as your competition's sites / premises are not accessible) and so will come to you.
Sounds harsh when phrased the way I put it but I portray it is a kind of "forced loyalty". As it costs a lot more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer and upsell to them this is one that really makes business owners sit up and listen.
Then I point out that the disabled community is close knit and so one person can effectively give you loads of free word of mouth advertising as they found the one site where they can use it and it is a pleasure to use rather than a chore / impossible!
Is that something you think would be interesting, a "how to get key stakeholder buy in for accessibility" from my very clinical and cut-throat perspective? 🤣
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
I will add it to my writing schedule (now I finally have one 🤣), it might be a few weeks but i will (try and remember to...) let you know when I post it!
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This - to me - is it! If we put aside the morality of deliberately ignoring a section of society, and look at it from the perspective of someone that - for example - just wants to make as much money as possible from their e-shop, then why would you not make it as accessible as you possibly can?
Some shop owners may say that their target market (ski / climbing equipment, or bicycles, for example) is not those requiring assistive technology, but those people have husbands / wives / partners / children / siblings / parents / friends too: people who may well be the target market.
And sometimes, accessibility is not only about those needing extra technology. Sometimes, the specific target audience have stressful days, or they are distracted, or it's sunny and not easy to see the screen... all kinds of reasons.
Bloody hell, even if you don't care about the 'soft stuff' like morals and rights 🤦, you must care about making more money, right? 😀
It is really interesting to have someone recite my view on it so accurately. In fact I am not one who gives much credence to people who try and get accessibility enforced using the "soft stuff", as if society cared about morals and rights we wouldn't have so many issues in the world! 😋
I actually have a calculator I use as part of pitching for work where I show how quickly accessibility can pay for itself, especially when baking it from day 1 as part of the spec adds maybe 5-10% in costs (and that is for something complex).
I might do a post on that calculator actually, as it may help a lot of devs who sit on the "soft stuff" side of things persuade their bosses that they can easily get clients to pay for the extra work.
In fact you made me wonder if I should share all of my "secrets" now that I am taking the company in a different direction such as how I convey the scale of the market opportunity and the knock on effects of how making a site accessible can have huge benefits to a business.
For example people with disabilities might not be able to go anywhere else (as your competition's sites / premises are not accessible) and so will come to you.
Sounds harsh when phrased the way I put it but I portray it is a kind of "forced loyalty". As it costs a lot more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer and upsell to them this is one that really makes business owners sit up and listen.
Then I point out that the disabled community is close knit and so one person can effectively give you loads of free word of mouth advertising as they found the one site where they can use it and it is a pleasure to use rather than a chore / impossible!
Is that something you think would be interesting, a "how to get key stakeholder buy in for accessibility" from my very clinical and cut-throat perspective? 🤣
Absolutely! I'm sure it would be far better than my exasperated, "Do you WANT to make more fckin' money or what!?!" efforts 🤣
I will add it to my writing schedule (now I finally have one 🤣), it might be a few weeks but i will (try and remember to...) let you know when I post it!