Since we are talking about a "dose of reality" how about the reality that
products built which are universally accessible, or at least more
accessible, will sell to more people, not less people.  We aren't just
talking blind folks either, but also old folks, people with other issues
too.  That makes good business sense, especially in an economic downturn.
The "reality" is that if we continually give business excuses to use before
they even think of them themselves, then we deserve being disenfranchised as
consumers.  The reality is, it's a supply and demand economy, even in tough
times, and if we can get it through thick skulls that our demand for
products is also worth the same green stuff that demand from others is
worth, then it makes perfectly good business sense to get it done.  It also
stands to reason that if we cannot get our needs met appropriately, then we
have every right to raise a stink about it as any other consumer group can
do.  Docility is the realm of fools and the condemned.

Bill


Bill
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Pietruk
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 8:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] inaccessible websites

Dorene 

Let me bring in a dose of reality into the discussion that wasn't an issue a
year or more back.
The economy is suffering; companies, in many instances, are on life support.
Folks in the real world are worried about having a job, whether they can pay
their mortgages, the declining value of their investments, and the falling
apart of stability around them.
It may be tough for some on this list to accept this notion:  but for most
in the real world, having food on the table takes priority to whether a
given site is accessible (whatever that term means anyway for, as has been
shown over and over, many sites are very usable even if they aren't totally
acessible).
I am not suggesting that accessability isn't important but, in the grand
scheme of things, it is going to play second fiddle until stability returns
and prosperity resumes.
Sorry to burst anyone's bubble; but a company who is perhaps lettings its
employees go, seeing declining sales, and other signs of a recessionary
economy isn't in a strong position to allocate resources to some things.
Accessibility is for a time of economic prosperity; but that era, for the
time being, is on memory lane and our expectations must be reshaped to meet
current priorities. 
The reality is that the web is exceedingly usable, and there are a lot of
businesses doing their best to make their sites as usable as possible for
the majority of their current and potential customers -- that makes good
business sense.  That said, litigation these days isn't going to get much
sympathy on these issues beyound the diehard members of given national
organizations.










Good works do not make a good man; but a good man does good works.
Martin Luther


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