Charlotte Magnusson on July 9:
> usability, user experience etc etc is finally being recognized as
> important (and selling;-) but accessibility is still struggling
It's not surprising that business is more aware of issues that affect larger numbers of customers than those that affect a minority. There are a couple of arguments that should be persuasive:
While universal design is a chimera, broadening usability can often increase usability for those without special needs. For instance, some (but not all) accommodations for low sight people make reading easier for others. The Oxo Good Grips http://oxo.com/oxo/about_roots.htm are the poster child for this direction when it comes to product design.
Another interesting area is designing for easy conversion. Leaving systems open to adaption means converting for special needs becomes less onerous. A few years ago I did an identity system and capabilities brochure for the organization that translates text books for the California Community College system. When a Braille version or other alternative text is needed, they produce it. The most common need is for versions usable by equipment that reads the book aloud while tracking the image of the text. If all that is available is a printed version, they have to scan, OCR, and edit. If the book is available in XML or even edited text, it makes it much cheaper and the student gets the textbook in a more timely fashion.
I know that when I have designed books, changes get made in the page layout program and I haven't made the effort to properly tag things so that it is easy to obtain a clean machine readable version. If publishers saw this as another source of profit, they would insist that such files were part of the deliverables so they could produce alternative versions just like they do with large print versions of novels. They could put my old clients out of business, make some money, and allow students with reading disabilities to get textbooks in time to do well in their classes. Considering the increasing pressure on textbook publishers to reduce costs, one might think that another source of profit would be especially welcome. (My main client from California is now in Georgia and is working on getting broader awareness especially among publishers.)
I hope the weather in Sheffield is nearly as nice as it is in London right now. I'll see many of you tomorrow night. I can hardly wait to see what a "cutting edge cafe" is like.
The same principles could apply to bringing various conversions in house or reaching licensing agreements on conversions.
Gunnar
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