> .... and have a webinar for suppliers where the level of expectation and clarity required in accessibility information was spelled out....

Unfortunately you are dealing with commercial companies here, of all different sizes, and with an understanding of accessibility varying from moderate to none at all. Even where they understand what accessibility is about, they feel no moral duty to provide accessible products. I suspect that the only ones who would attend a webinar would be ones already aiming for compliance anyway. The rest will just shrug their shoulders and hope the problem will go away if they do nothing. Even if they attend, that would just be one, probably quite junior, manager or sales person who would not have enough influence in their company anyway.

Could I suggest that you would more likely have success if you put your expectations and requirements into a document signed by all your universities, colleges and other organisations involved. Mail it to all the directors, of all the supplier companies you want to deal with. Point out you cannot buy if they don't comply. That would give them something tangible to discuss at future board meetings.

Why am I so pessimistic? Last year I had a series of discussions with a company that produced a web-based system for educational videos, and who had the NHS as their primary customer. (I mean, that is one of the biggest customers anyone can have!) The conversation can be summarised as follows:

Them: Our biggest customer is the NHS [lucky them, I wish I were so fortunate!], and they want us to make our product WCAG compliant. However we understand this will cost a considerable amount. What do we do?

Me: You need an accessibility audit and then your developer will have to correct the issues found. [I quoted some prices, and explained the PSBAR to them]

Them: We could not possible afford that. We would have to let the NHS business go instead.

Me: I could offer you an audit of just the main page of your application. Your developers would fix those issues, then correct similar issues on other pages. That would get you started in the process. I would still recommend a full audit in the future when you can afford it. [I quoted a price that was a fraction of the original price, hoping that once they started they would find the interest in continuing.]

Them: That is still a lot lot of money for us. [Really, to keep your biggest customer?]

Me: Don't just consider the loss of the NHS as a customer, consider all the other public sector organisations that are probably never contacting you in the first place, because they see your system is not accessible.

Them: [they ignored that last comment when I raised it in conversation] 

There was a fundamental block in their minds to the very idea of changing their product simply to comply with what they considered as nuisance regulations. In the end they simply asked for a gap analysis. At least it just about paid for the time I'd wasted talking to them! 

Just a month or two later I had a very similar experience with another supplier who sell a Trello-like product. I even suggested they look at the Accessibility Roadmap their competitor Trello have on their website about their progress towards accessibility. But again, no interest on spending the money needed, and no understanding that they will miss so many potential customers as a result. 

So that is the kind of attitude you need to overcome. It needs more than a webinar to do it!
Guy Hickling
Accessibility Consultant

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