Accessible Web Design Is Good Business

The text alternative to a PowerPoint presentation delivered by Dean Rose A. Doherty of Northeastern University's University College, at a breakfast presentation entitled "Accessible Web Design Is Good Business" on July 31, 2003.

Quick Links:

• Slide 1
• Slide 5
• Slide 10
• Slide 15
• Slide 20
• Slide 25
• Slide 27 (last slide)

Slide 1

Accessible Web Design Is Good Business

July 31, 2003

University College
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts

Slide 2

Agenda

• Defining the Issues
• Accessible Web Design Is Good Business
• Solutions: Short-Term and Long-Term
• Award to Wells Fargo and Company
• Questions and Answers
• Current Assistive Technology— Optional Snell Library Tour

Slide 3

Accessible Web Design Issues

• Legal requirements
• Policies and standards
• Accessibility vs. usability
• Barriers to accessible design

Slide 4

Web Developments

• Sound and color graphics
• Animation
• Database integration
• Portable devices

Slide 5

The Web Is Not the Same for Everyone

• Shopper with color blindness
• Individual with age-related conditions who wants to manage personal finances
• Consumer with Deafness
• Potential customer with dyslexia
• Teenager with deaf-blindness seeking entertainment

Back to Index

Slide 6

Accessibility

• Users can be constrained by functional limitations like physical and learning disabilities or by situational limitations such as old browsers or the tiny screens on portable devices.
• A web site is accessible if it can be used in a variety of ways that do not depend on a single sense, ability, or technology.

Slide 7

Functional Accessibility

• Visual— blind or low vision
• Auditory— Deaf or hard of hearing
• Physical— limited or no use of the hands
• Cognitive— language and learning disabilities

Slide 8

Situational Accessibility

• Prevailing circumstances, environment, or device can affect everybody, not just people with disabilities
• Examples of situational accessibility include mobile devices and device limitations such as having no mouse

Slide 9

Impact of Accessible Web Sites on the Individual and Business

• Makes shopping online for goods and services convenient and easy for all
• Provides access to services, products, and information that might otherwise not be available

Slide 10

Size of Disabled Population

• 54 million in the United States
• "Worldwide, there are more than 750 million people with disabilities. As we move towards a highly connected world, it is critical that the web be usable by anyone, regardless of individual capabilities and disabilities."
  Tim Berners-Lee

Back to Index

Slide 11

What Is Your Role?

• Make web services and goods available to the largest population possible regardless of functional or situational disability
• Avoid writing off customers/clients or giving away business to accessible sites

Slide 12

Accessible Web Design Is Good Business

• As the baby boomer generation experiences age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma, they will become more dependent upon the web
• As mobile devices become even more common and sophisticated, accessible web sites will flourish

Slide 13

A Large Market Today

• 14,000,000 Americans (about one out of every twenty) have severe vision conditions not correctable by glasses
• 2,800,000 visually impaired by color blindness
• 1,100,000 legally blind

Source: whyfiles.org citing Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc.

Slide 14

A Larger Market Tomorrow

• By 2010, 20 million baby boomers will have a visual impairment even when wearing glasses or contacts (lighthouse.org)
• By 2025, age-related macular degeneration could be blinding 900,000 to 3 million Americans (whyfiles.org)
• By the year 2030, twice as many people will be blind as today

Slide 15

Millions of people 65+ with Vision Impairment

Note: The figures in this chart are approximations until the exact numbers are available.

Source: Population Projections Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, January 13, 2000
Year:	People:
2000	5 million
2005	5 million
2010	6 million
2015	7 million
2020	8 million
2025	9 million
2030	10 million

Back to Index

Slide 16

Millions of people 65+

Note: The figures in this chart are approximations until the exact numbers are available.

Source: Population Projections Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, January 13, 2000
Year:	People 65+:	Percentage of Population:
2000	35 million	13%
2005	35 million	13%
2010	40 million	13%
2015	45 million	15%
2020	55 million	17%
2025	65 million	18%
2030	70 million	20%

Slide 17

Spending Power

• Consumers with disabilities control more than $175 billion in discretionary income
• Currently, 45-64 year olds have the greatest number of credit cards and the highest usage (cyberatlas.internet.com)
• All consumers are more likely to patronize business where they feel "welcome"

Slide 18

National Median Net Worth of Families Headed by Persons Aged 62-74

Note: The figures in this chart are approximations until the exact numbers are available.

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, 1989-2001
Year:	Dollars:
1989	$135,000
1992	$140,000
1995	$132,000
1998	$138,000
2001	$180,000

Slide 19

Web Usage

• 47 percent of online population is over 40 (agentmedia.com)
• 45-64 year olds surf the Internet more frequently, stay there longer and check out more Web pages than even their college age counterparts (cyberatlas.internet.com)
• The number of baby boomers and seniors online grew by 18.4% in one year, making them the fastest growing Internet population (cyberatlas.internet.com)

Slide 20

Opportunity Summary

• Huge market
• Significant spending power
• Heavy online usage

Back to Index

Slide 21

Next Steps to Help Your Organization

• Learn the legal requirements and the barriers
• Know current policies and standards and accessibility vs. usability
• Understand current assistive technology

Slide 22

The Most Important Step

• Become acquainted with the disabled community

Slide 23

Two Simple Short-term Solutions

• Create effective tab/keyboard navigation for the visually impaired and for people using PDAs and other appliances without a mouse
• Help screen readers work more effectively
  • Use Alt text
  • Design accessible tables
    (see http://www.webaim.org/howto/tables/)

Slide 24

Long-term Solutions

• Change attitudes about accessible web design
• Acquire an interdisciplinary approach and rethink communication on the web

Slide 25

Northeastern University and Accessible Web Design

• Graduate certificate program that provides the interdisciplinary training needed to master these complex issues
• Annual award for an outstanding accessible web site

Back to Index

Slide 26

First Annual Accessibility Award

Slide 27

Accessible Web Design Is Good Business

July 31, 2003

University College
Northeastern University
Boston Massachusetts

End of Slide Show

Back to Index

© 2003 Northeastern University. All rights reserved.

Back to top