Accessibility Interview with Andy Budd
Well, I am not going to re-hash the entire interview on my site. A recent interview with Andy Budd on usability is a must for anyone interested in building functional websites. There are a few parts that particularly stuck out to me:
“If I employed a professional architect, I would expect them to design a house that complied with current legislation and industry best practices. I wouldn’t be expected to learn all this information up front, to make sure they did a good job. That’s why you hire professionals. If my budget wasn’t sufficient, I could go to a local cowboy, but I’d end up with a poorly executed job that didn’t comply with the necessary standards. In this situation, I would reduce the scope of the house or wait until I had a bigger budget. Unfortunately, many web design clients choose to go the route of the cowboy builder, often — I may add — through no fault of their own.”
and…
“Going back to the architect analogy, I doubt you’d ever see a professional architect suggesting wheelchair access as an optional extra when it was actually a legal requirement. Moreover, if the client said to drop the wheelchair access because they wanted to save a bit of money, I doubt any professional architect would agree, preferring to lose the project rather than compromise their professional integrity.”
I feel he hit the nail on the head with this interview
So, what are you waiting for — read the article now!
6 Comments Add your comment
Chris Hattery June 12th, 2006
I actually heard on a podcast where someone sued a company because their site was not accessible. Don't remember what the outcome was. I think that if a company is going to offer a service through their site, and a blind man goes to the site with his screen reader and it doesn't catch important features of using the service, he should be able to sue the company for not recognizing him as a valued customer and addressing his needs, Or something.
Aaron B. June 12th, 2006
While I agree with the basic points you bring up from Andy Budd, I think it's a bit of a stretch to compare the consequences of not building a house to code to not building a website with web standards. For instance, a web designer is not gonna be sued for not building a website with web standards, nor should he be.... Anyway, I need to read the rest of the interview.
Nate Klaiber June 12th, 2006
I definitely agree with you Aaron (and I think some of your points are covered in his full interview - the above quotes are what stuck out to me) - but it seems to be that train of thought that prevents web designers from building with accessibility in mind. After all, there is NO punishment for building inaccessible websites - so why do it? It becomes an afterthought, or alltogether eliminated from the scope of a project.
Personally, I dont think it takes that much longer to make a website accessible (when you understand the medium). Honestly, many of the sites you have constructed are what made me strive to become better at building accessible websites. You build the websites with excellent CSS and semantic HTML - and it makes for a great ending site that is both visually aesthetic and accessible (a truly professional website).
I dont want to sound like im pounding the idea of web standards - but I feel that in this profession it is something that should be taken seriously, especially with all of the bad sites out there. If I just ignored these aspects, then I would be no better than the 'cowboy builder' he refers to.
So - yes, to a degree its a stretch, but the concept behind it of a TRUE professionalism is really what jumped out to me when I read his interview.
Nate Klaiber June 13th, 2006
Chris,
That would most likely be Target who was sued by a student under California law.
I stand in limbo with this one because of the medium. I dont know if others should be held more accountable or not (government sites, corporations, etc). The web is public domain, and there are MANY other sites out there that are horrible - Target just happened to be the first with anything brought against them.
But, what about a designer who is trying to sell his services and chooses to create his website entirely in flash? How would it be handled then? Obviously - I would never advise doing that, but there are no strict rules or regulations in place right now to monitor or take action against websites, personal, public, or private.
Matthew Purdon June 13th, 2006
Hey there,
I do not think that a website should be liable if they are not accessable. Can a newspaper be sued for not having brail? Can a city be sued for not having the audible crossing indicators at intersections? You will never be able to please everyone, especially if you have a tight budget.
I think before we get to worrying about accessability we need to make sure that websites are validated W3C standard code.
Chris Hattery June 16th, 2006
I just heard an interview with this guy on boagworld.com. They have a web standards podcast. British accents are cool. He's involved with this site as well. clearleft.com