This is an old draft. The published version of this document is at www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/.
Presenting the Case:
Overview
Social Factors
Technical Factors
Financial Factors
Legal & Policy Factors
References
Presenting the Case for Web Accessibility: Financial Factors
This is an old draft. The published version of this document is at www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/.
on this page: introduction - @@customizing - financial benefits
- cost considerations - related
resources - document information
Note : This document is an initial draft [see change log in progress] and should not be referenced
or quoted under any circumstances. This document is under development by the
Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG), and will
be offered to other W3C groups and the public for review.
Introduction
This page describes financial factors relating to Web accessibility. It is
part of a resource suite that also describes the
social, technical, and legal and policy factors for consideration in presenting
a case for Web accessibility.
An organization's efforts to make its Web site accessible often has a
financial impact, and can result in positive return on investment and cost
efficiencies. Financial costs and benefits in developing accessible Web sites
apply differently to specific organizations and situations; for example,
costs related to Web accessibility are often lower when building a new site
than when fixing an existing site, and sometimes complex sites are less
costly to fix than simple sites because they use templates and content
management systems. This page provides questions to help focus how financial
factors are covered in the business case for a specific organization, and
examples of how financial factors can be addressed in a customized case for
Web accessibility.
The following points can help focus how financial factors are covered in a
specific organization's business case for Web accessibility:
- What are the main goals and motivations for the organization's
Web site?
As described under Increased Web Site Use
below, some organizations primarily seek to increase sales through their
Web sites, while others seek to cut costs. The purpose behind the Web
site for the organization can determine how to incorporate the financial
benefits in the customized business case. For example, organizations
primarily interested in their Web site increasing online sales might be
most interested in increasing potential market share, findability, and
usability. Other organizations might be interested in other aspects of
increased Web site use.
- Are there other efforts in the organization
that overlap with the financial benefits of Web
accessibility?
Is the organization focusing on improving search engine rankings,
increasing market share, or improving usability for all users? If so, the
business case can emphasize how Web accessibility can contribute to those
other efforts.
- What stage is the organization's Web
development?
Incorporating accessibility from the beginning of a Web site development
or redesign process is almost always significantly easier, less
expensive, and more effective than making accessibility improvements to
an existing site as a separate project. Therefore, if the organization is
about to start a new development or redesign effort, the business case
can emphasize the importance and cost savings to incorporating
accessibility early in the project.
- How concerned is the organization with
cutting Web-related costs?
As describe in Direct Cost Savings below, many of
the Technical Factors related to Web accessibility can result in cost
savings in additional servers and in personnel for developing,
maintaining, and updating Web sites.
- Is the organization possibly legally
obligated to make their Web site accessible, or might it in
the future?
In some cases it is useful to include in a business case the
potential legal costs associated with defending against legal action
for not complying with requirements for Web accessibility. Legal and Policy Factors
discusses policy considerations for different organizations.
- Is the organization obligated to provide
alternative formats of printed material, or might it in the
future?
Providing materials in an accessible Web site can reduce the cost of
providing and distributing alternate formats (such as large print,
embossed braille, computer disk).
- Does the organization provide some Web
pages in different languages, or might it in the future?
Specific accessibility guidelines that can decrease the cost of
translating a Web site to other languages are listed at the end of Direct Cost Savings below.
- Does the organization have several different
Web projects?
As discussed in the introduction to Initial Costs
below, many costs associated with Web accessibility are one time only and
do not need to be repeated for each project. In organizations with
multiple Web projects, the business case can clarify that initial costs
can be shared among different projects.
- What is the current level of Web
accessibility in the organization?
As described in Initial Costs below, there are
personnel-related costs associated with an initial investment in
accessibility, in training and skills development and/or in hiring
expertise. There are also potentially initial capital expenditures. If
the organization already has some expertise and equipment, these costs
will be lower.
- How will the organization's specific Web
site issues impact on-going costs?
As describe in On-Going Costs below, on-going
development time is often not significantly impacted by accessibility;
however, additional development time is required for some types of
content, such as providing captions for the audio in multimedia content.
Similarly, the type of content and the development and testing
environment in the organziation determines the impact of accessibility on
added (quality assurance) testing time.
Financial Benefits
Benefits to organziations that provide accessible Web sites include
financial benefits from increased Web site use and direct cost savings.
A major benefit of Web accessibility is the potential for direct and
indirect financial gains from increased Web site use. Web accessibility can
make it easier for people to find a Web site, access it, and use it
successfully, thus resulting in increased audience (more users) and increased
effectiveness (more use).
Many organizations benefit financially when more people
successfully use their Web site; for example, commercial companies
can get more sales, educational institutions can get more students, and
non-profit organizations can get more funding and demonstrate to grantees
successful outreach and dissemination. Increasingly, Web sites are
used to cut costs by decreasing customer support services and
letting customers complete transactions online rather than requiring
personnel and paper interactions. The many examples of cost savings from
online transactions include citizens renewing licenses online, investors
trading stock online, and students registering for classes online. Thus,
increased site use can result in financial gains and cost savings.
Increase in audience (Web site users) can result from the following
benefits of Web accessibility:
- Increases potential use by more people, expands potential market
share
- Accessible sites can be used by more people -- including people with
disabilities, older people, people with low literacy, people whose
primary language is not the language of the site, people with low
bandwidth connections to the Internet, people with older technologies,
and new and infrequent Web users, as discussed in Social Factors -- thus
increasing the market segments and number of people who can
successfully use the site. An important potential market for many
organizations is older people. In some countries older people are the
fastest growing group of new Web users. [References, F1]
- When Web use is a significant part of a job, Web pages and
applications that are accessible to more people can help with employee
recruiting and employee retention. Employees, customers, and other
users who become temporarily or permanently disabled or impaired due to
accident, illness, or aging are more likely to be able to continue
using a Web site if it is accessible.
- Increases findability
- Accessibility techniques increase the findability of Web pages by
exposing content to search engines, both internally (within a Web site)
and externally (across the World Wide Web). For example:
- Some search engines use metadata to index pages (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 13.2) [References, F2]
- Alternative text for images and multimedia is available to search
engines (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.1) [References, F3]
- Most search engines access text and not images (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 3.1)
- Some search engines give higher weight to text that is marked up
as headings (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 3.5) [References, F2]
Increase in effectiveness (Web site use) can result from the following
benefits of Web accessibility:
- Increases potential use in more situations
- Accessible sites can be used in more situations. Web sites that can
be used by people with disabilities can more easily be used by people
with situational limitations, such as:
- in a noisy environment (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.1, 1.4)
- with a small black-and-white display (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 2.1,
2.2)
- The "Enable Content on Different
Configurations" section of Technical Factors
describes how accessibility techniques help Web pages work with
different configurations. Situational limitations such as low bandwidth
and older technology are discussed in Social Factors.
- Increases usability
- Accessible sites are generally more usable to everyone, including
people with disabilities and people without disabilities. Increased
usability means Web site users achieve their goals with effectiveness,
efficiency, and satisfaction. When users have a positive experience
with a Web site, they are more likely to use the site more thoroughly,
return to the site more often, and to tell others about the site
("viral marketing"). Some accessibility guidelines directly increase
usability, such as:
- clear and consistent design, navigation, and links (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 13.1, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, 13.7, 13.8, 14.3)
- large blocks of information that are divided into groups (WCAG
1.0 Checkpoint 12.3)
- clear and simple language (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 14.1)
- supplemental illustrations (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 14.2)
- good color contrast (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 2.2)
Other accessibility guidelines can indirectly increase usability, for
example, by making Web pages load faster, as discussed in the Access for People with Low Bandwidth
Connections to the Internet and Older Technologies section of
Social Factors.
- Increases positive image
- Accessible sites can lead to a positive image as an organization
demonstrates social responsibility, as described throughout Social Factors. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
has been shown to improve financial performance, enhance brand image
and reputation, increase sales and customer loyalty, increase ability
to attract and retain employees, and provide access to capital and
funding. [References, S1]
In addition to the benefits from increased Web site use discussed above,
many organization realize direct cost savings from efforts to improve Web
accessibility.
Many of the aspects of Web accessibility that are discussed in Technical Factors (which includes
relevant WCAG 1.0 Checkpoints) can provide direct cost savings:
- Decreases personnel costs for maintaining
the site when accessibility reduces site maintenance long
term
- Decreases the amount of server capacity
needed and saves on additional server costs when accessibility
reduces server loading
- Decreases the need for creating multiple
versions of a site for different devices when accessibility
enables content to work on different devices
- Decreases the cost of upgrading to new
technologies in the future when accessibility provides a
foundation for future Web
Potential direct costs savings also result from the following benefits of Web
accessibility:
- Decreases potential for high legal expenses
- Where there are laws or regulations requiring accessibility of Web
sites, ensuring that sites are accessible reduces legal liability,
thereby reducing expenses for attorneys. Legal and Policy Factors
discusses policy considerations for different organizations.
- Decreases cost of alternative format materials production and
distribution
- For organizations that have previously provided printed materials in
alternate formats (large print, embossed braille, computer disk), an
accessible Web site can reduce the need for alternate formats, thus
saving production and distribution costs.
- Decreases cost of translating
- The cost of translating a Web site to other languages can be
decreased by following accessibility guidelines for:
- clear and simple language (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 14.1)
- clear and consistent design, navigation, and links (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 13.1, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, 13.7, 13.8, 14.3)
- separating content from presentation (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint
3.3)
- text and markup rather than images to convey information (WCAG
1.0 Checkpoint 3.1)
Cost Considerations
When accessibility is incorporated from the beginning of Web site
development it is often a small percentage of the overall Web site cost. [References, F4] Most of the costs are early
investments at an organization level, rather than repeat costs required for
each individual project. There are usually few costs associated with
accessibility at the project level once accessibility is integrated in Web
development throughout an organization.
When an organization starts incorporating accessibility, there are initial
investments in acquiring knowledge, establishing processes, and increased
development and testing time.
The following are common personnel-related costs associated with an
initial investment in accessibility:
- Providing training and skills development
- Providing training and skills development includes the cost of
training and time away from other work. During skills development there
is initially an increase in development and testing time because using
new skills is often slower. In addition to training on direct
accessibility issues, organizations that move to different technologies
in an effort to improve accessibility might incur training costs on the
new technologies.
- Hiring expertise
- Many organizations starting Web accessibility hire employees or
consultants with accessibility expertise.
- Incorporating accessibility into procedures
- Incorporating accessibility into protocols and procedures, such as
quality assurance testing and usability evaluation, takes personnel
time.
- Assessing existing Web site accessibility
- When fixing an existing site, assessing (auditing or evaluating)
existing Web site accessibility is a common initial cost. The
assessment cost is either a direct expense if using a service outside
the organization, or a personnel cost if using internal resources.
Making accessibility improvements in existing Web sites is almost
always more costly in personnel time than incorporating accessibility
as sites are initially developed.
Potential initial capital expenditures related to Web accessibility
include:
- Purchasing accessibility evaluation tools
- Web accessibility evaluation
tools are software that helps identify accessibility problems.
While these are not a required expense, many organizations find that
using accessibility evaluation tools saves time and money.
- Purchasing assistive technologies
- Assistive technologies, such as those listed in Alternative Web Browsing, are
used by some people with disabilities to access the Web. Developers,
designers, and evaluators sometimes use assistive technologies
throughout the development process to understand how people interact
with Web pages and to test Web pages.
- Upgrading technologies and tools
- Sometimes organizations determine that it will be more effective and
efficient to implement accessibility with different, usually newer,
technologies. For example, some organizations upgrade or change to
authoring tool software that better supports production of accessible
Web sites. (Selecting and Using
Authoring Tools for Web Accessibility includes guidance on
evaluating and selecting authoring tools.)
When accessibility is new to an organization, incorporating accessibility
in a project usually increases the development time and testing time, as
people are learning on the job. While most of the costs are associated with
initial accessibility efforts, there are some on-going costs to making Web
sites accessible, including:
- Additional development time
- Once project members get experience with accessibility, the
development time spent on accessibility decreases significantly, in
some cases to none. (This cost is directly offset in some cases by the
decrease in development time from some accessibility improvements, as
explained in Financial Benefits above.)
Additional development time is required for some types of accessible
content, such as providing captions for the audio in multimedia
content.
- Additional testing time
- Organizations committed to providing usable, accessible sites will
likely increase testing time. Accessibility testing activities include:
- Testing design ideas and early prototypes with assistive
technologies
- Reviewing early prototypes and final Web pages for conformance to
accessibility standards and guidelines
- Quality assurance testing of specific accessibility issues, such
as checking for missing alternative text for images
Related Resources
This document is part of the Presenting the Case for Web Accessibility
resource suite which includes:
Last updated on $Date: 2012/08/01 20:34:14 $ by $Author: shawn $.
Editor: Shawn Lawton Henry. Previous editors: Andrew Arch, Judy Brewer, R
Miguel Bermeo. This resource is under development by the active members of
the Education and Outreach Working
Group.
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