Web Dev full-stack [LAMP] since 2005, but much heavier on the JS stuff these days.
Jack of all Stacks, Master of some.
Always looking to learn new things. Always glad to help out, just ask.
Location
Atlanta, GA
Education
B.S. in Biochemistry 2004, M.S. in Computer Information Systems 2007
We very well written article. Definitely covers a lot of ground, especially the resource section. Some of what i discuss below is not about this article as Abbey was quite thorough, but maybe some of you have dealt with the same and have some input to share with me.
What I keep finding hard is that clients come to me, and they've seen an article or two like this and go "Use WebAIM" and the "WAVE" tool so my site's accessible.
They don't realize those testing tools just tell you a fraction of the accessible problems your site has and that NO ONE can claim a site is accessible or "ADA Compliant" unless they're with some government agency or have some sort of certification AND are able to test it by having someone with actual disabilities testing and verifying it.
Clients all want it cheap, and a lot of Developers claim to write "accessible code" without stating that their code may be fine but that does not make a website accessible or compliant at all, and god forbid you question them about it.
They sell this as a service and screw good people out of their hard earned money.
Your code can be perfect and your site could still be useless to blind people[you have 5000 lines of tracking pixels in your code and their screenreader can't reach anything useful ], or deaf people [if you have audio/video and they can't find the transcripts], or others for whatever reasons.
Clients come to me asking for ADA compliance and then balk at the costs.
Getting compliant is not cheap. I've had clients work with Level Access [levelaccess.com/ they start at like $5k for a small 5-10 page site and expect a recurring service to review it every X months]
And they just tell you what's wrong, clients frown when i tell them i have to bill them for time spent fixing whatever is found that's flawed. I can do my best, but I won't work for free.
So then they go "Can we use these" and they link me to half a dozen Overlay crap sites like Accessibe. Not gonna list all the reasons you don't want to use overlay accessibility tools that claim compliance.
These guys have done it for me, extensively: siteimprove.com/glossary/accessibi... overlayfactsheet.com/
In the end, Accessibility and ADA Compliance aren't the same thing, and there are few people qualified to say if your site actually is or not.
On top of that, the law, as defined, is very gray area on what does and does not apply to business sites, so business seek to go with the lowest common denominator which i find is "AA compliance" via the WCAG guideliness.
Any input on a good approach to helping small business solve their compliance needs? Cost-effective, as in, cheap solutions are always preferred, but I'd like to do this thing right.
😂 I appreciate the notice that this wasn't necessarily about the article. You're right - it's time consuming and complicated and expensive and a lot for one person to do. Maybe @colabottles or @inhuofficial will have some advice.
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.
Change their mindset. Small businesses that are “we need compliance” thinking will never be able to afford to be compliant.
Instead what I like to do is to slowly guide them the realisation that a11y is the path to profits (size of the market, spending power etc. Are the tools at your disposal here).
It takes some effort, but once they realise that full buy-in and “a11y first” thinking benefits the business your whole approach can change and it becomes affordable.
They focus on long term improvement plans, rather than a VPAT and minimal fixes. They change their development and procurement processes to build a11y in from day 1 and so it adds very little cost.
These are all achievable for a small business, making sure that everything they do going forward is accessible and that they have a plan to slowly fix old mistakes does not add an undue burden. In fact, if you can help them shout about their improvements (without it being virtue signalling) and their commitment to improvement it will add to their bottom line and be a major differentiator for them.
So to answer the question, sadly there are no cheap fixes in the short term I am afraid. But if you can get long term buy-in then it is no longer a cost, it is a growth strategy and your job becomes 100 times easier (you are advising on a11y before they take action, so you can find accessible libraries, components etc. early and save tech debt (a11y debt) being a barrier.
Hope that helps a little, not sure if it made sense as it is hard to write long comments on my phone! ❤️
P.s. thanks for the shout out / for tagging me in Abbey ❤️
I wrote about it here and along with the advice given here, I have to say that accessibility isn't a checklist or a group of features. I've told that to former clients. It is a process and more so if accessibility wasn't factored in from the very start.
Clients need to be educated in a way so that they can understand this isn't a quick fix that will be done in a day or two. Clients know what they want, but they don't. They don't know what they want because what they want is usually inaccessible.
Another thing I would tell clients is, "There is no such thing as your site being ADA compliant (if it isn't a government entity or fall under Section 508 here in the States), there is no such thing as a quick fix, and if you don't want to get sued, you'll let me handle the accessibility side of things and let this be done so that it protects you and your visitors."
Small businesses can get sued too.
One last thing, if you do have clients you're doing work for and they're paying you, you factor in that time doing accessibility before contracts are signed and you just do it. I did that for the final two years I freelanced. Jobs were completed and accessibility was done from the beginning. It also helped that in my contract, there was a section that spoke to accessibility and how it was going to be WCAG AA compliant or even go for AAA in areas where it was feasible.
You'd be surprised how many business owners, stakeholders, or CEOs don't read a contract.
Thanks for the tag, @abbeyperini This is a great conversation to have. Good stuff also from @inhuofficial
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.
We very well written article. Definitely covers a lot of ground, especially the resource section. Some of what i discuss below is not about this article as Abbey was quite thorough, but maybe some of you have dealt with the same and have some input to share with me.
What I keep finding hard is that clients come to me, and they've seen an article or two like this and go "Use WebAIM" and the "WAVE" tool so my site's accessible.
They don't realize those testing tools just tell you a fraction of the accessible problems your site has and that NO ONE can claim a site is accessible or "ADA Compliant" unless they're with some government agency or have some sort of certification AND are able to test it by having someone with actual disabilities testing and verifying it.
Clients all want it cheap, and a lot of Developers claim to write "accessible code" without stating that their code may be fine but that does not make a website accessible or compliant at all, and god forbid you question them about it.
They sell this as a service and screw good people out of their hard earned money.
Your code can be perfect and your site could still be useless to blind people[you have 5000 lines of tracking pixels in your code and their screenreader can't reach anything useful ], or deaf people [if you have audio/video and they can't find the transcripts], or others for whatever reasons.
Clients come to me asking for ADA compliance and then balk at the costs.
Getting compliant is not cheap. I've had clients work with Level Access [levelaccess.com/ they start at like $5k for a small 5-10 page site and expect a recurring service to review it every X months]
And they just tell you what's wrong, clients frown when i tell them i have to bill them for time spent fixing whatever is found that's flawed. I can do my best, but I won't work for free.
So then they go "Can we use these" and they link me to half a dozen Overlay crap sites like Accessibe. Not gonna list all the reasons you don't want to use overlay accessibility tools that claim compliance.
These guys have done it for me, extensively:
siteimprove.com/glossary/accessibi...
overlayfactsheet.com/
In the end, Accessibility and ADA Compliance aren't the same thing, and there are few people qualified to say if your site actually is or not.
On top of that, the law, as defined, is very gray area on what does and does not apply to business sites, so business seek to go with the lowest common denominator which i find is "AA compliance" via the WCAG guideliness.
Any input on a good approach to helping small business solve their compliance needs? Cost-effective, as in, cheap solutions are always preferred, but I'd like to do this thing right.
😂 I appreciate the notice that this wasn't necessarily about the article. You're right - it's time consuming and complicated and expensive and a lot for one person to do. Maybe @colabottles or @inhuofficial will have some advice.
Change their mindset. Small businesses that are “we need compliance” thinking will never be able to afford to be compliant.
Instead what I like to do is to slowly guide them the realisation that a11y is the path to profits (size of the market, spending power etc. Are the tools at your disposal here).
It takes some effort, but once they realise that full buy-in and “a11y first” thinking benefits the business your whole approach can change and it becomes affordable.
They focus on long term improvement plans, rather than a VPAT and minimal fixes. They change their development and procurement processes to build a11y in from day 1 and so it adds very little cost.
These are all achievable for a small business, making sure that everything they do going forward is accessible and that they have a plan to slowly fix old mistakes does not add an undue burden. In fact, if you can help them shout about their improvements (without it being virtue signalling) and their commitment to improvement it will add to their bottom line and be a major differentiator for them.
So to answer the question, sadly there are no cheap fixes in the short term I am afraid. But if you can get long term buy-in then it is no longer a cost, it is a growth strategy and your job becomes 100 times easier (you are advising on a11y before they take action, so you can find accessible libraries, components etc. early and save tech debt (a11y debt) being a barrier.
Hope that helps a little, not sure if it made sense as it is hard to write long comments on my phone! ❤️
P.s. thanks for the shout out / for tagging me in Abbey ❤️
Excellent answer, especially on mobile!
😅 Not gonna lie - I was like "I just develop. My company has whole departments for this. Who do I know who is brave enough to do this on their own?"
I wrote about it here and along with the advice given here, I have to say that accessibility isn't a checklist or a group of features. I've told that to former clients. It is a process and more so if accessibility wasn't factored in from the very start.
Clients need to be educated in a way so that they can understand this isn't a quick fix that will be done in a day or two. Clients know what they want, but they don't. They don't know what they want because what they want is usually inaccessible.
Another thing I would tell clients is, "There is no such thing as your site being ADA compliant (if it isn't a government entity or fall under Section 508 here in the States), there is no such thing as a quick fix, and if you don't want to get sued, you'll let me handle the accessibility side of things and let this be done so that it protects you and your visitors."
Small businesses can get sued too.
One last thing, if you do have clients you're doing work for and they're paying you, you factor in that time doing accessibility before contracts are signed and you just do it. I did that for the final two years I freelanced. Jobs were completed and accessibility was done from the beginning. It also helped that in my contract, there was a section that spoke to accessibility and how it was going to be WCAG AA compliant or even go for AAA in areas where it was feasible.
You'd be surprised how many business owners, stakeholders, or CEOs don't read a contract.
Thanks for the tag, @abbeyperini This is a great conversation to have. Good stuff also from @inhuofficial
Awesome tips in here and, (not to infringe on a trademark or anything) but when it comes to accessibility Todd made a great point…”Just Do It” 🔥💪