STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Editorial: Is it Obligatory to Make Products Accessible?

By Mike Murray, Editor, Achieve! and David Dick, Editor, Usability Interface

Mike Murray

Is it obligatory to make products accessible? Of course it is! Here are the most persuasive
reasons:

• If you don't, you're not doing your job! Before you begin writing, you must focus on purpose and audience, your entire audience. Every audience likely includes at least one person who has a disability.
• Avoid potential litigation. Recent litigants include Sidney Olympics, Intuit, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Claire's Stores, and Southwest Airlines. Can your company or job afford the hit? Is it worth the risk?
• The disabled market is sizeable. At least 10% of the online population is disabled. Census information reports over 54 million Americans and over 750 million people worldwide are disabled. This represents a large market that can't be overlooked.
• The population is aging. A 2001 report by the Pew Research Center on "wired seniors" says seniors "comprise 13% of the U.S. population, but just 4% of the U.S. Internet population. 69% of wired seniors go online every day, compared to 56% of all Internet users." Seniors have different access needs than younger users. If they can easily navigate Web sites, they are more likely to purchase.
• Businesses must meet federal requirements. The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, Section 508 requires electronic and information technology developed, purchased, used, or maintained by the Federal government to be accessible to people with disabilities.
• It's good corporate citizenship. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, said it best. "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone, regardless of disability, is an essential aspect."

Not convinced? Then consider this:

• The business environment is very competitive.
• You must prepare for wireless and other translation of web content.
• Making products more accessible benefits everybody

I could go on, but you get the idea. Is it obligatory to make products accessible? You bet it is!

David Dick

The number of people with disabilities (such as impaired vision, mobility, or hearing) that prevent them from using a product (hardware or software) or service (like a web site, automatic teller machine, or kiosk) is low compared to the number of people who do not have accessibility problems. So why would any manufacturer want to spend money on research and development to satisfy a minority of users?

Reasons to opt out:

• The return on investment is minimal.
• Except for the Section 508 guidelines, there is no legal obligation for a product or service to be designed for accessibility.
• A majority of the brand products on the market offer a variety of features to improve accessibility.

What more is needed?

If manufacturers concede to the whims of people with special needs, the costs will only be passed on to the consumers who don't need such gadgetry. Before you know it, they will expect money to include Braille and where will it end? Previous sentence doesn't make sense.

If you believe such rationale is justified, then you should be ashamed of yourself. Do you need government regulations to do what's morally correct for the user community? \

Consider the following situations:

• Consumers (confined to a wheelchair) that cannot access banking services because the kiosk/automatic teller machine is too high to reach are lost business.
• Consumers (blind) who cannot adequately use an e-commerce Web site because it cannot be viewed by special reading devices are lost sales.

Not convinced? Then consider this-even if you have no special needs today, a tragic accident could change your life tomorrow. Accessibility and usability are partners in effective product design.
I am proud to share this editorial with Mike Murray and to publish a joint issue of our newsletters.