[access-uk] Re: Cost of accessibility was Web site preferences
- From: "Egan, Bim" <Bim.Egan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 15:50:04 -0000
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for the undeserved welcome back. <Grin>, To misquote an oldie,, the
rumours of my departure were slightly exaggerated. I didn't leave.
Excuse the slight change to the subject line, I'm trying to keep the poll
thread on topic as I'll be reporting the results to other people.
On the cost of accessibility services, are ours higher than any similar ones?
It's a business to business service, so the cost can't come out of the funds
raised as charitable donations. In other words our team has to be
self-financing. We have reduced our prices in the last few months though, by
about 18%.
The problem is that it's a very labour intensive operation. Surf Right has
more than 160 tests that need to be run, most of them manually, to establish
the functional accessibility of a site. Automated software can often spot real
errors, but it can't suggest solutions, as these are specific to each
individual piece of code. Where automated tests fall down is in the use of
judgement. Sites will pass WCAG 2.0 at level A for using headings, for
instance, even if the headings are used in all the wrong places and are
semantically nonsense. ... And yes, we do come across that, frequently. It
takes days to establish what's wrong, and explain both why it's wrong and how
to put it right for every test failure, hence the cost.
Cheers,
Bim
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jonathan
Sent: 09 March 2011 14:47
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Website preferences
On 9 March 2011 07:29, Egan, Bim <Bim.Egan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> My name's Bim Egan, I'm the technical lead for RNIB's web access team.
> Web designers sometimes look to RNIB for guidance on what sight-impaired
> people need to make a site accessible. Though we have no power to
> insist that they take our advice, we want to make sure that what we say
> is right for you and others .
Replying on-list, but first to say:
Hi Bim, RNIB told me you'd left last year! Anyway, good to see you
back on the case.
Here's the problem from a web designer's point of view:
We can create websites which machine-validate to WAI AAA and WACG
level two. We can ensure that the html and css fully validates to
ensure cross-browser and screenreader compatibility.
In fact, with dynamic database driven sites, browser detection and
good use of xhtml and css, there's no reason for a site to not be
blind-friendly.
But if you want people to display the RNIB's Surfright badge, I'm
afraid it just costs too much.
My site is 4 template pages. The quote I got was around £1,000 inc
VAT, + £120 per hour + VAT for any other work. That worked out at
£4.51 per word!
Apparently, the going rate is £240 per page, plus vat. Not to design,
but just check compliance with disability guidelines and suggest
improvements if needed.
For a small business, this is a huge cost. Thinking I must have heard
wrong, I contacted two local authorities and one dept of the MOD
displaying the surfright logo, who I knew would have to disclose
figures paid.
They'd all paid in excess of £2000 just for the RNIB Surfright logo.
As this is an annual charge, when I asked them about this last July,
they said with the budget cuts that were even kicking in back then,
that they couldn't afford to Surfright their site at renewal. So even
for large government depts, this is too hefty.
I appreciate that RNIB have lots of good free guidelines for designing
sites, but if you want people to work towards a high standard and
approval badging, people just can't afford to when and 50 pixel logo
costs more than the entire project and hosting! Just my 2p (or should
I say £1000) worth :)
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