Hi Dave
I am glad you and others have been such long followers of the list.
To try to answer your question from what is happening here in the UK from my perspective there are a range of options being offered from differing sources. Architect's offices are offering access consultancy as a "value added" service in their designs; there are dedicated access consultants and then there are disability organisations offering their services. Each one will be asking for different levels of fees and this may also depend on the type of client with commercial firms being charged more for the service than those who have far less resources to spare.
Most organisations commissioning access consultancy services would prefer a price for the job, and determining what is included in the job is sometimes tricky - do they want staff training as well, etc. So this then boils down to how much you feel the client can afford to pay, offering a cheap service can also mean that the client does not value the advice as much as if they had paid a fair price for it.
As a guide I would suggest you try to find out what local architect's are charging for an hourly rate, smaller practices rather than the big swanky ones quite often work by the hour. Then try to assess how long it will take to undertake the audit. As a rule of thumb for every day out on site collecting access data and photographs it will take one and half times as long again to write up the report. If you are doing a lot of audits you might get quicker, but initially err on taking longer to write up reports.
Using volunteers is ok but you will need someone to be responsible overall and they are likely to want to be paid.
Finally you also need to consider liability and have some form of indemnity insurance to cover the work in case the client ends up claiming against your advice.
Good luck
Marcus
Professor Marcus Ormerod MRICS FHEA
Access Consultant and Inclusive Designer
SURFACE Inclusive Design Research Centre
Room 423 4th Floor SOBE
Maxwell Building
The University of Salford
Salford M5 4WT
Mobile 07887 556425
-----Original Message-----
From: Accessibuilt list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of News at Inclusion Daily Express
Sent: 07 October 2013 16:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ACCESSIBUILT] Accessibility auditors
Hello,
I have been a member of this listserve for about a decade now, and have followed with enthusiasm the development of accessibility standards in the UK and elsewhere.
I am member of a group of volunteers representing many different disabilities (mobility, intellectual, vision, hearing, neurological, etc.) in our local area, which is the eastern part of Washington State in the US.
We are bulding a website of accessibility features of places, services and events for all disabilities and ages. We are finalizing our checklist, which differs from the ADA in that it also includes customer service guidelines and "disability friendliness" that are not covered in the ADA.
We hope to rely on volunteers and students to a great degree to perform site audits. We also realize we will need to have a paid co-ordinator, and will likely need to pay for some site auditors in the future.
I have been asked to come up with wage/costs projections for our budget. I have not been able to find any such auditors in our area for comparison.
So, I'm asking this group what you use to figure costs for audits. Do your site auditors get paid salary? If so, what would be considered an average hourly rate? Do they get paid per audit? If so, what is a likely rate? Does consultancy work for premises owners warrant a different rate structure?
Any feedback would be helpful.
Thank you,
Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
International Disability Rights News Service www.InclusionDaily.com
Lead Facilitator
Access4All Spokane
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Run by SURFACE for more information on research, teaching and consultancy:
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