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< Contents ERCIM News No. 63, October 2005
NEWS FROM W3C
 

Web Accessibility Business Case Documents Published

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published 'Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization.' This document is designed to help organizations develop their own customized business case for Web accessibility. It provides text that can be used as is, as well as guidance on identifying the most relevant factors for a specific organization. The 5-page resource suite describes social, technical, financial, legal and policy aspects of Web accessibility:

  • Social Factors addresses the role of Web accessibility in equal opportunity for people with disabilities; the overlap with digital divide issues; and benefits to people without disabilities, including older people, people with low literacy and people not fluent in the language, people with low bandwidth connections to the Internet and older technologies, and new and infrequent Web users.
  • Technical Factors addresses interoperability, quality, reducing site development and maintenance time, reducing server load, enabling content on different configurations, and being prepared for advanced Web technologies.
  • Financial Factors addresses financial benefits from increased Web site use and direct cost savings.
  • Legal and Policy Factors addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other organizations.

Business cases are sometimes accompanied by an implementation plan describing the steps involved in making an organization's Web site accessible. A separate WAI resource suite, Implementation Plan for Web Accessibility, provides information on initial assessment, developing organizational policies, training, selecting authoring tools, and conformance evaluation.

It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. An accessible Web also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.

Links:
Web Accessibility Business Case Documents: http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/
Implementation Plan for Web Accessibility: http://www.w3.org/WAI/impl/
 

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