The Role of Testing in the Conformance Process

1
The ROI of Accessibility
Market Economic Benefits Presented by
Debra Ruh Founder President
2
New Directions, New Possibilities

• Introductions
• TecAccess History
• The Worldwide Accessibility Movement

3
New Directions, New Possibilities
TecAccess gave me my respect back,
TecAccess gave me my life back.
Rosemary Musachio

• Todays Technology
• Working Together
• The Evolving Role of People with Disabilities in
  Industry, Gov, and Education

4
Todays Objectives

• The Numbers the world's fastest growing minority
  group
• The Need Identify key statistics, hurdles, and
  areas for growth
• The Solution Explore strategic steps to improve
  the accessible experience for people with
  disabilities
• The Future Best practices, next steps.

5
The Numbers

• People with disabilities are one of the largest
  and fastest growing minority groups in the world
• A largely untapped market
• Global Impact

6
The Numbers continued

• The Global Community
• A growing demographic
• The importance of protecting and promoting
  dignity of people with disabilities through
  assistive technology

7
The Numbers Continued

• A large percentage of students, as well as
  working-aged adults, around the world now have
  disabilities of varying degrees whether they
  know it or not
• 1 in 3 households in the US affected by a
  disability (source American Association of
  People with Disabilities)
• Around the world there is a growing incidence of
  people seriously injured in car accidents,
  extreme sports, and war

8
The Impact

• Larger than any single ethnic, racial, or
  cultural group
• 3 Trillion in discretionary spending worldwide
• An untapped spending, buying, and voting power
• Source National Organization on Disability 2005

9
The Impact continued

• United Kingdom minimum of 80 billion (source
  Institute of Employment Studies)
• United States minimum of 220 Billion (source
  Presidents Executive Committee on Employment of
  People with Disabilities)
• Australia minimum of 26 billion (source
  Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that
  Australians with Disabilities)
• Canada minimum of CAN 25 billion (source
  Conference Board of Canada)

10
Impact is Increasing

• Acquiring disabilities for the first time
• The aging process
• Disabilities are not confined to traditional
  definitions anymore
• Impact from work to play

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Marketing Studies

• WE Magazine, a lifestyle publication for people
  with disabilities, says people with disabilities
  spend 700 billion per year on technology.

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Marketing Studies

• Marketing studies of the Atlanta Paralympics
  (Solutions Marketing Group, 2003) reveal that
  even households with no disability connection
  felt goodwill towards companies and schools that
  included people with disabilities in advertising
  and were more likely to buy their products or use
  their services.

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Marketing Studies

• Couple these facts and apply them to almost any
  industry, and the answer is clear Accessibility
  makes good business sense.
• For example
• An Open Doors Organization study estimated in
  2003 that diners with disabilities would spend
  35 billion in restaurants that year. The study
  found that more than 75 of people with
  disabilities eat out at restaurants at least once
  a week.

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Other Examples

• The New York Times reported that spending by
  travelers with disabilities exceeds 13.6 billion
  annually.
• The National Captioning Institute recently found
  that 66 of viewers of captioned TV are more
  likely to buy a product that has a captioned
  commercial 53 will actively seek out products
  advertised with captions and 35 will switch to
  brands that use captioned ads.

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Largest Minority Group!

• Knowledge, skills and abilities to succeed in
  todays educational environment and workplace
• Technology continues to alter the way individuals
  learn and work, helping to level the playing
  field

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The Great Equalizer

• Identify new learning opportunities
• Recruiting students with disabilities
• Creating strategies to retain students
• Technology as the great equalizer

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Unprecedented Opportunities

• Increased demand for governmental services
• Increased demand for business
• Increased profit for private enterprise
• Increased consumer base for government agencies.
• Accessibility pays dividends and makes good
  business and organizational sense

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Analyzing the NeedUnderstanding the Needs of
People with Disabilities

• Types of Disabilities
• Blindness and visual limitations
• Deafness and hearing limitations
• Speech limitations
• Mobility limitations
• Multiple limitations

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Laws, Regs, Standards

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of the
  United Kingdom
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• The Federal Disability Discrimination Act of
  Australia (1992)
• Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977

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New Initiatives

• UN Forum to Examine How Information Technology
  can Assist Persons with Disabilities
• The first Global Forum of the United Nations
  Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT
• Section 508 and 255 Refresh

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New Initiatives continued

• eAccessibility survey of public sector services
  in the European Union
• European Action Plan for "Aging Well in the
  Information Society

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Risks Fragmentation

• Fragmentation has driven up costs due to EIT
  vendors
• Risks associated with formalization of
  certification include restricted innovation,
  increased costs, and delayed time to market
• Individuals and consumer groups are using
  non-EIT legislation

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Bridging The Gap

• Identify key players or an in-house
  accessibility team to monitor common EIT
  accessibility laws
• A one size accessible product solution does not
  fit all
• Example Retaining students, skilled employees
  and teachers through accessibility efforts and
  assistive technology.

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Value Add

• People with disabilities
• dependable, dedicated, hardworking
• and productive employees, volunteers,
• and customers
• Employee and customer morale and productivity
• improves
• Establish a culture that regards employees as
  valuable--not disposable
• Students with disabilities can help craft
  effective strategies to reaching others
  disabilities
• Tax incentives

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Value Add continued

• Students view colleges and universities that hire
  workers with disabilities, use AT, and make
  accessibility efforts more favorable
• Consumer and students alike prefer to give their
  business to such organizations
• Loyalty to schools and organizations perceived as
  disabled-friendly
• This market segment is predicted to continue to
  spend freely on technology

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More Than A Niche Market

• Accessibility conformance benefits a larger
  population segment, including
• The students with learning disabilities
• the international population
• users with low-band-width
• those who use PDA to acquire their information

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Common Problems Supporting People with
Disabilities

• General lack of awareness about disabilities and
  associated limitations
• Little knowledge about how to communicate
  effectively to people with disabilities
• Support specialist not trained in computer
  keyboard access techniques
• Documentation in an inaccessible format
• Deficient in knowledge about assistive
  technologies
• Some Customer Service Representatives dont know
  how to use accessibility features/functions of
  their own products

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Organizational Management

• A goal to develop products, services and
  information that are accessible to everyone
• "Total Customer/Student Experience
• Increase your organizations performance and
  efficiency

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Communication

• The key component of customer /student service
  excellence
• Customer Service/Student Representatives comfort
  level
• Disability awareness training and etiquette

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Assistive Technology

• Understand your audience
• Understand the basic functionality of standard
  assistive technologies
• Understand how your students and peers with
  disabilities use accessible products and services

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Understanding the Needs of People with
Disabilities

• Types of Assistive Technologies Used by
  People with
  Disabilities

• Augmented Output Devices
• Visual representation of auditory information for
  hearing impaired
• Augmented Input Devices
• Network based TTY system
• Videophones

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Understanding Your Student/ Your Customer

• Common problems encountered when integrating
  assistive technologies and your school or
  business
• Eliminate issues through proper training of
  Student Advisors and Customer Support Teams
• Remember that inaccessibility is about barriers
  when a product or services hasnt been designed
  for a wide enough range of circumstance.

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Train Your Peers, Train Everyone

• Understanding the different types of disabilities
  and common issues relating to each area
• Be aware of hardware and software used to support
  these disabilities
• Understand system requirements and configuration
  issues between assistive technology and IT
• Troubleshooting tips, checklists, and process for
  problem escalation
• Provide disability awareness training for
  example, disability awareness training that uses
  simulation exercises works best

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Proof Point

• Accessibility efforts represent a unique selling
  proposition and proof point to your school and/or
  business
• Promote your disability-friendly story
• Promote your knowledge regarding disabilities and
  accessibility, emphasize your awareness of
  international disability movement

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The End Result....

• Improve the learning experience
• Set yourself/your school apart creating a
  market differentiator
• Leverage a new student base and a new market
  segment
• Increase public image
• Drive assistive technology from beginning to end

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Further Benefits

• Recruit new students, and hire from an untapped
  qualified labor pool
• Schools will gain loyalty of students/families,
  while businesses will gain loyalty of users and
  positive brand recognition

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Be Proud

• Promote your disability efforts up front
• Leverage the steps that youve taken
• Get the right people involved
• Partner with experts in the field

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Develop A Strategy

• Become a trusted advisor
• Set yourself apart as an expert on this topic,
  and leverage this knowledge to attract new
  customers
• Understand the buyer motivation and requirements
• Understand that this market is no different than
  the rest we all know someone with a disability

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Summary continued

• Staying competitive through disability-friendly
  support
• Investing in the experience you deliver to your
  students and stakeholders
• More than a niche audience, a worldwide audience

40
Summary continued

• As people with disabilities are changing the way
  we live, learn, work, and play
• Organizations are now serving populations that
  they have never before served
• No two people have the same exact set of
  learning-styles, abilities, experiences, or
  educational background
• Therefore, designing your goods and services with
  people with disabilities in mind can
  significantly increase the size of your audience,
  as well as the impact of your lessons

41
Moving Forward

• Accessibility is not about only about people with
  disabilities
• Its about whether usability extends to all
  people
• Everybody tends to be disabled
• The line is not a very clear one

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What You Can Do!

• Keep moving forward
• Remember these success stories
• Look within your respective learning and business
  environments
• Find creative ways to make it happen

43
Questions

• Debra Ruh
• TecAccess
• Rockville Commerce Center
• Building A, Unit 1
• 2410 Granite Ridge Road
• Rockville, VA 23146
• USA
• Phone (804() 749-8646
• Fax [phone]
• www.TecAccess.net
• Druh_at_TecAccess.Net