While an iPhone app is very emotionally appealing to most people, in many cases starting with a mobile Web site makes more sense.

John Arnold of Entrepreneur.com has written a nice piece laying out the pros & cons of mobile apps vs. mobile Web sites.

I would even go a little farther than Arnold is saying that starting with a mobile Web site makes the most sense for most companies. As Arnold states in his article, extending an existing Web site to be mobile-accessible is much easier, less time consuming and expensive than launching an app, particularly if your site is running on a CMS (e.g. Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, etc). That, coupled with the tough decision of which platform to focus on (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, etc.), points to starting with a mobile Web site.

While there are exceptions to every rule, I feel the “test and learn” approach afforded by going mobile Web site first makes the most sense.

Mr. Harris posits that with new advances such as the aforementioned Word plug-in, Accessibility is quickly becoming the new green.

He backs up this claim by showcasing some of the advances taking place at the California State University system, and “Perfect storm” of policy, litigation and new technology led by 5 key drivers:

1. White House Leadership in the form of more emphasis on the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to promote equality 

2.  A new amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act, effective Jan. 1, that clarifies and strengthens the protection of anyone who faces discrimination on the basis of a disability.

3. A Section 508 “Refresh” is being proposed, and is prompting a drive for consistency of accessible technology rules around the globe.

4. An international push is coming from the United Nations Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities, which is expected to produce an ADA-type policy on a global scale to advance the rights and protect the dignity of people with disabilities.

5. Target Website Accessibility Lawsuit – The settlement between Target Brands and the National Federation of the Blind, where Target has agreed to pay $30 million and meet specific requirements regarding web accessibility, has made the issue of Web site accessibility “front-burner” for many organizations.

These are trends that all of us in the Web business need to pay attention to. Accessibility is going to be an integral part of what do for our clients, and how we do it!

Jose Villa

If you’re attending, you should definitely try to check out the discussion on Accessibility. If not, one of the panelists, Henny from www.iheni.com, posted a quick transcript of their discussion points here.

Among some key points Henny makes is that “Desktop browser share is becoming less and less important…it is all about standards compliant mobile browsers” This counteracts the first objection to taking on Web accessibilty – cost.

Also interesting is the quick discussion of Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), which makes HTML dynamic and enables cool keyboard and screen reader accessible widgets.

Would love to hear any thoughts or feedback from anyone who actually caught the discussion at SXSW.

Jose Villa

For those of you still trying to get a good understanding of the costs and benefits of accessibility, this is a nice, simple introduction to the topic.

In addition to mentioning the recent lawsuit settlements by Target and Apple iTunes with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the author (Chris Berk from Resource Interactive) lays out the market potential of the disabled market and provides a simple “check list” on how to optimize your Web site for disabled users.
Although he mentioned it at the end, I do feel the article only skimmed over one of the most important benefits of accessible Web design – usability. An accessible Web site is a usable Web site. Even going farther to design and aethestic, some of the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing Web sites in the world are highly accessible. It’s just good design.

Also, there was no mention of accessibility standards, specifically the W3C and Section 508.

This is a good start though and I’m glad to see AdAge is paying attention.

Jose Villa, President

Jose Villa

Technology, and more specifically Web sites, are considered accessible if they can be used as effectively by people with disabilities or any other limitation (including experience level or language) as by those without. The U.S. government began enforcing accessibility in 1998 with the passage of an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973, often referred to as Section 508. While Section 508 only applies to Federal agency Web sites, accessibility should matter to every organization, public or private, large or small.

Aside from the basic argument that all users should be considering when designing a Web site, including disabled users and those with other limitations, the market justifies thinking about accessibility. Did you know that there are 55 million people with disabilities in the U.S.? In addition, there are 50 million baby boomers that will acquire some type of disability in the coming years. Add to these figures the fact that 24 million Internet users will go online for the first time this year with 21 million non-English speakers in the U.S., and you have a very significant group of people who probably can’t effectively use most of the Web sites in the U.S. (which are deisgned with experienced, English-speaking, and non-disabled users as their audience).