How to Convince Someone That Web Accessibility is Important

So we've talked about web accessibility in our development class. We read the excellent chapter on accessibility in "Developing with Web Standards" by John Allsopp and looked at different ways to validate code for accessibility. I get it. Web accessibility is important and there are a lot of great tools to get you there. But how do you convince a non-interested party (NIP) of the importance of web accessibility (WA)?


1. Hit them with the facts.
Your NIP is probably a normal functioning person who's never thought about WA. They've never wondered about how a blind or deaf person uses the web. They don't know that many normal people can't distinguish between colors like red and green. To give some scope to the amount of people that WA can help, it all begins with the facts.

According to the U.S. Census brief, Disability Status: 2000 (.pdf):

• 49.7 million (19%) of people ages 5 and over have disabilities
• 5.2 million are between 5-20 years of age
• 30.6 million are between 21-64 years of age
• Of the total number, only 57% are employed (average income $33,109 vs. $43,269 for the general population)
• 7.7 million have difficulty seeing newspaper print (even with correction)
• 8.0 million have difficulty hearing conversation (even with correction)
• Disabilities include visual, hearing, cognitive and mobility impairments

49.7 million people! That's a lot by any standard and I'm sure the 2010 Census numbers will be even larger.

2. Show them what it's like to use the web with a disability. 

• Use the neat, free screen reader Web Anywhere to let them listen to a website. 
• Show them what it's like to try and access everything on a site using only the keyboard.
• Let them see a site through the eyes of a color blind person with a filter site like this one.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has a great listing of scenarios of people with disabilities using the web that can give you some good stories of disabled individuals attempting normal tasks online and the difficulties they run into.


3. Bring on the guilt trip.
Here's an older video of students with disabilities describing what it's like to use the internet. (Of course, the captions haven't been edited by whoever uploaded it, so the video itself is inaccessible. Oh irony!)




4. Tell them why you care.
Explain what you've learned about WA in addition to the information above. Make it personal. The web should be made available to everyone. It is increasingly an essential resource for many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, social interaction, and more. The web is used not only for receiving information, but also for providing information and interacting with society. Even the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes Web accessibility as a basic human right. I imagine it's a right your NIP wouldn't want to lose either.

5. If all else fails, WA is win-win.
Give your NIP a list of the ways WA benefits users who aren't disabled.

It also benefits...
older users, mobile phone users, users with low literacy, users with older technology or low bandwith connections, students with different learning styles and users not fluent in English

and it...

• helps with search engine optimization or SEO
• demonstrates corporate social responsibility
• increases customer loyalty
• reduces law suit risks

...and much more! The WAI has a great list of different motivations for moving toward WA that is broken down by type of business or organization.

Good luck getting your NIP on board with the WA wagon. The more non web developers we make aware of the importance of WA, the more we move toward changing the way the web works for the better of ALL users!