This is an old draft. The published version of this document is at www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/.
Web Accessibility Business
Case: Overview
Social Factors
Technical Factors
Financial Factors
Legal & Policy Factors
Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization:
Technical Factors
This is an old draft. The published version of this document is at www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/.
on this page: introduction - identifying - site maintenance - server load - different
configurations - advanced technologies
Note: This document is an initial draft [see change log in progress] and should not be referenced
or quoted under any circumstances. This document is under development by the
Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG), and will
be offered to other W3C groups and the public for review.
Introduction
This page is part of a resource suite that describes the social, technical, financial, and legal and policy factors
relevant to developing a customized business case for Web
accessibility for a specific organization.
Web accessibility solutions often result in improved technical
performance. The importance of various technical benefits of Web
accessibility is different for specific organizations and situations. For
example, reducing server load might be most important to an organization with
a large, mission-critical, high-traffic site; whereas another organization
that focuses on cutting-edge technology might be more interested in
interoperability and being prepared for advanced Web technologies. Yet these
same technical benefits might not be very important for organizations with
small, simple sites.
This page provides guidance on customizing how technical factors are
covered in a specific organization's business case for Web accessibility.
The following questions can help identify how the technical factors of Web
accessibility apply to the organization:
- How important is it to the organization
to:
- reduce site development and maintenance
time?
- reduce server load?
- enable content on different configurations?
provide interoperability?
- be prepared for advanced Web technologies?
provide future-compatibility of the organization's
technology?
The sections below list how specific aspects of Web accessibility
contribute to technical factors beyond accessibility.
- How important is it to the organization to
have high-quality Web sites that meet international standards and
guidelines?
Many of the technical factors relating to Web accessibility, including
many of the WCAG 1.0 Checkpoints listed in the sections below, lead to
high quality sites that meet W3C international standards and guidelines
for Web technology. @@maybe say that there are documents extoling the
virtues & business case for Web standards in general, and often
directly include accessibility @@
Reduce Site Development and Maintenance
Time
Incorporating accessibility usually increases site development time
initially, as discussed in Financial Factors. However, in
the long term Web accessibility can reduce the time an organization spends on
site development and maintenance, as follows:
- Reduce site-wide style change time and
effort by defining presentation through a style sheet and using
proper markup (HTML, XHTML, etc.) for structure. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint
3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 5.4) [@@ need to explain that can change in one
style sheet, rather then in each HTML page @@]
- Facilitate efficient debugging with
automated validation tools by making Web content conform to standards and
identifying this by including a DOCTYPE statement. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint
3.2, 11.1, 11.2) Also, simplifying markup by using style sheets, rather
than HTML, to define presentation. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 3.3)
- Reduce redesign and translation time and
skills needed by using standard markup language and style sheets
to style and format text, formulae, and images instead of using bitmap
images @@ needs editing + "bitmap images of text" @@. (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 3.1) [@@ need to explain that to change or translate bitmap
images requires changes in each image through a graphics program, rather
than just in the HTML (or other) @@]
- Reduce development and maintenance
by having one accessible version, rather than multiple versions, as
described in "Enable Content on Different
Configurations" section below.
- Reduce time and money spent in recruiting,
training, and development by using technologies that many
developers already know. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 11.1, 3.2)
Reduce Server Load
Web accessibility techniques can reduce the server load, thus reducing the
need for additional servers and/or increasing the download speed, as
follows:
- Reduce the size of each page served
by defining presentation in style sheets (which are only requested once
per session), rather than each page's HTML, and by using text rather than
bitmap images of text. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 3.3, 3.1)
- Reduce large image and multimedia file
downloading by including alternative text for images and
transcripts for multimedia files, which, for example, lets users with low
bandwidth browse with images off. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.1)
- Reduce unwanted page downloading, and thus
server requests, by providing clear and consistent design,
navigation, and links (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 13.1, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6,
13.7, 13.8, 14.3)
Enable Content on Different
Configurations
@@ use term "device independence" and link to
http://www.w3.org/2001/di/IntroToDI.html @@ Web accessibility can enable Web
content to be rendered and interacted with on different configurations --
including different devices, operating systems, and user agents (such as Web
browsers) -- as follows:
- Allow users and user agents to access
content, and servers to provide content, for different
configurations by using current versions of W3C technologies.
Technologies such as MathML, XHTML, XML, RDF, SMIL, CSS, XSL, XSLT, and
PNG and have accessibility features built-in. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 11.1,
3.2)
- Render stylized information across a wide
range of configurations by providing information as text and
using style sheets to define presentation, rather than bitmap images of
text. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 3.1, 3.3)
- Facilitate interaction with different input
devices by designing for device independence (WCAG 1.0
Checkpoint 6.4, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5)
- Allow users and user agents to request
content in a way that suits their capabilities by using markup
for structure and style sheets for presentation. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint
3.3)
Web accessibility can help organizations be prepared for advanced and
future Web technologies, for example:
- Allow for syndication of
information by using metadata and representing it using resource
description framework (RDF)
. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 13.2) @@needs more explanation maybe something
like XML systems can be used to collect and redistribute information
(syndication) and to make available information that otherwise may not be
found. -- Syndication is a system of encouraging information providers to
make available synopses of their resources in an XML format, then
gathering the synopses, aggregating them into a database or menu system
and then making them available. Using RSS, an XML schema, information can
be maintained in many different
locations yet easily aggregated onto a central site.@@ @@ Would a
definition or alternative phrase be available for "syndication of
information"? That is a bit of jargon I am not familiar with, although I
suspect it is equivalent to the amazingly nasty "multi-utilization of
information". @@
- Simplify migration and
backwards-compatibility by defining presentation through a style
sheet, using proper markup structure, and otherwise using current W3C
standards. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 11.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7,
5.4)
TO DO @@:
- @@ match in-page links to headings better
- @@ check if want to add term "interoperability"
& also "quality" (of following guideline, specifications ...)
- @@ check if any others need explanations (in
addition to: "Reduce site-wide style change time and
effort by controlling layout and presentation through a style
sheet. [@@ need to explain that can change in one style sheet, rather
then in each HTML page?] and "Reduce redesign and translation
time and skills needed by using standard markup language and
style sheets to style and format text, formulae, and images instead of
using bitmap images of text. (WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 3.1)" [@@ need to
explain that to change or translate bitmap images requires changes in
each image through a graphics program, rather than just in the HTML (or
other) ?] )
- @@ go through old versions & talk to previous
editors and see if there was ever any content under heading "Details on
relation between accessibility features and technical performance"
- look at table in old auxilary benefits
Last updated on $Date: 2012/08/01 20:32:47 $ by $Author: shawn $.
Editor: Shawn Lawton Henry. Acknowledgements.
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