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[Old Draft] Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization:
Overview
[Change-marked version of 23 June 2009 incorporating WCAG 2.0 and Older Users]
This is an old draft. The published version of this document is at www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/.
Track changes are indicated as follow:
- Additions below are shown with blue highlighting within square brackets "[addition]"
- Deletions are shown with orange highlighting and strike-through within braces or curly brackets "{deletion}".
- "Web site" changed to the more commonly used "website" unless it is part of the title of another document
end of note
Page Contents
[This page is the first of five web pages covering the social, technical, financial, and legal and policy factors in the business case for Web accessibility. Each page presents different aspects of Web accessibility along with guidance on developing a customized business case.]
Introduction
{The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life:} [The Web 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] {for receiving information as well as} providing information and interacting with society. Therefore, it is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. [Indeed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes Web accessibility as a basic human right.]{An accessible Web also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to ageing.}
[While accessibility focuses on people with disabilities, it also benefits older users, mobile phone users, and other individuals, as well as organizations. Older users with age-related accessibility needs are an increasingly important customer base for most organizations, as the percentage of older users is increasing significantly. Organizations with accessible Web sites benefit from search engine optimization (SEO), reduced legal risk, demonstration of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and increased customer loyalty.]
{There are initial costs for organizations implementing Web accessibility; however the initial costs are often offset by a full return on investment.} [Organizations can realize substantial return on investment (ROI) that offset any costs of implementing Web accessibility.] In order to be willing to [make the initial investment,] {invest the initial costs,} many organizations need to understand the social, technical, and financial benefits of Web accessibility, and the [expected returns.] {expectations of the returns throughout the organization.} The justification to commit resources to a project is often called a "business case". Business cases usually document an analysis of {the} [a] project's value in meeting the organization's objectives, the cost-benefit analysis, and the expected outcomes.
[How to use this document]
This page is the first {in a series} of five [Web] pages covering the business case for Web accessibility. The five pages, called a "resource suite", [cover social, technical, financial, and legal and policy factors, and] are designed to help develop a customized business case for Web accessibility for a specific organization. The resource suite presents many different aspects of Web accessibility and includes guidance on incorporating {these} [relevant] aspects into a specific organization's business case[, as described in the Developing a Customized Business Case section].
[Permission to Use] {Copyright and Reuse}
{The information in this resource suite may be used or adapted for different organizations, according to the copyright and document use policies of W3C. This document should be referenced as:}
[The "Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization" resource suite is copyright© W3C and licensed under the W3C Document License. Additionally, you are granted permission to create modifications of the material.
WAI encourages you to copy, change, translate, distribute, and present the information from "Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization" as long as you include a reference to this document as source material:]
Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization, S.L. Henry [and A.M.J. Arch], eds. World Wide Web Consortium (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), {August 2005} [June 2009]. http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/
Factors in a Business Case for Web Accessibility
{This resource suite presents the aspects of the business case for Web accessibility in the following pages:}
[The different aspects of the business case for Web accessibility are presented in detail in the following pages:]
- 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 the financial benefits of increased website use, for example, from search engine optimization (SEO); direct cost savings; considerations for initial costs and on-going costs; and ways to decrease costs.] {addresses financial benefits from increased website use and direct cost savings, and cost considerations including initial costs and on-going costs.}
- Legal and Policy Factors addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other organizations in the form of laws, policies, regulations, standards, guidelines, directives, communications, orders, or other types of documents.
[To help develop a customized business case, each of these pages starts with questions to help identify how the factors apply to a specific organization.]
Developing a Customized Business Case
An effective business case focuses on the organization's objectives and motivations. Certain aspects of the value and outcomes of Web accessibility are more important to one organization than another, based on its particular situation. For example, one organization's motivation might be to demonstrate social responsibility by being inclusive of people with disabilities, while another organization's primary motivation might be technical quality and meeting international standards.
{Just as organizations' objectives and motivations are different, their business cases for Web accessibility are somewhat different.} [Just as organizations' objectives and motivations vary, so do their business cases for Web accessibility.] A customized business case for a specific organization will have different content and style, and incorporate different aspects with different emphasis, focused on that particular organization.
{To help guide development of a customized business case, the Social Factors, Technical Factors, Financial Factors, and Legal and Policy Factors pages each start with questions to help identify how the factors apply to a specific organization.}
Examples of How Factors Differ Across Environments
Examples of [different motivations that organizations have for adopting accessibility and how those can be integrated into a customized business case] {different approaches to customizing a business case} are provided below:
- A corporation might emphasize:
- financial gains and cost savings from increased Web use due to increased potential market share, search engine {findability} [optimization (SEO)], and increased usability
- reducing risk of legal action, {resulting in} high legal expenses, and negative image
- {the} public relations benefits of demonstrating [corporate] social responsibility [(CSR)]
- [benefits of an inclusive workplace that supports employees with disabilities
- increased productivity from supporting and retaining older employees and their experience]
- A government ministry or agency might emphasize:
- {requirements based on laws and policies such as anti-discrimination legislation or information and communications technology policy that ensures that public services are available to all}
- [laws and policies that require public services are available to all, such as anti-discrimination legislation or information and communications technology (ICT) policy]
- [demonstration of social responsibility and provision of information and services that are accessible to all citizens]
- {long-term} savings from improved server performance and decreased site maintenance {efforts}
- [benefits from enabling people with disabilities and older users to interact with them online instead of more costly ways]
- An educational institution might emphasize:
- {the} number of students, faculty, or staff with disabilities in educational settings as a social responsibility consideration
- {the} benefits of Web accessibility to students with different learning styles, older computer equipment, or low bandwidth Internet connections
- [benefits to older employees who may be experiencing age-related impairments, an increasing percentage of employees as the workforce ages]
- legal or policy requirements
- A non-governmental [(non-profit)] organization [(NGO)] might emphasize:
- social responsibility factors, such as the organization's commitment to human rights, including the right to information
- {the} organization's interest in ensuring that its materials are available to all of its potential audiences
- [supporting older people with age-related impairments who may be donors]
- A web design business might emphasize:
- {the} competitive advantage and financial benefits of being able to meet increasing requests for accessible web design [and development]
- {the} technical benefits and long term financial benefits to clients of providing sites according to Web standards
- {the} public relations benefits of being able to support clients' interests in demonstrating social responsibility
- [A small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) relying on e-Commerce might emphasize:
- positive impact on search engine optimization (SEO) from accessibility improvements
- importance of an increasing market among people with disabilities and older people who may significantly benefit from accessible online shopping
- increased general usability and trustworthiness of online shopping interfaces from improved accessibility
- reduced risk of legal action and negative publicity from not complying with anti-discrimination legislation]
[While your business case may emphasize a few aspects, it is also important that you include other aspects:] {While a specific business case for Web accessibility might emphasize a few aspects, it often is important to include other aspects as well.} For example:
- {an} [An] organization with a clear legal requirement for Web accessibility might still need a solid cost/benefit analysis to get management to commit sufficient resources for an effective Web accessibility program[.]
- {some} [Some] commercial organizations might be more responsive to a social responsibility argument than to a standard cost/benefit analysis when committing to Web accessibility[.]
{Related} [Additional] Resources
{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.}
{Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web: Making a Web Site Accessible Both for People with Disabilities and for Mobile Devices introduces how Web sites can more efficiently be designed to be accessible from a mobile device and also accessible for people with disabilities when developers understand the significant overlap between the two design goals and guidelines.}
[The following resources provide additional details related to the business case for accessibility:
- Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review
- Illustrates the increasing importance of older users online and the overlap between the Web accessibility requirements of older people with age-related impairments and the provisions of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Includes statistics about changing demographics and the prevalence of impairement with age.
- Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web: Making a Web Site Accessible Both for People with Disabilities and for Mobile Devices
- Introduces how Web sites can more efficiently be designed to be accessible from a mobile device and also accessible for people with disabilities when developers understand the significant overlap between the two design goals and guidelines. Links to more detailed technical documents.
- [WAI Resources
- Lists the primary resources from W3C Web Accessibility Imitative (WAI), including several that provide additional information for organizations developing a business case.
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.]