IBM urges US senate for accessibility standards in information technology
IBM’s director for World Wide Accessibility Center, Frances West, asked members of the US Senate Subcommittee to “embrace the need for consistent or "harmonized" standards in information technology. “
The European Commission has indicated a willingness to enforce an accessibility compliance evaluation and even a third-party certification and licensing. West advocates private companies taking the initiative to recognize the need to address accessibility, especially in any product design process. Third party testing would only increase the development and production costs and lengthen the product cycles.
According to The Mature Market, where the article is published, the following statistics were given about the need for accessibility.
“In the U.S. alone, there are 54 million people with disabilities and 76 million aging baby boomers who need accessible technology. According to AARP, one in every four people will acquire a functional disability by age 50 and one in two people by age 65.�
While I do believe that companies should voluntarily address accessibility, many make the choice to simply ignore it. So what to do? Enforcement results in government intervention, legal problems and additional expenses and higher consumer costs. Yet there are companies that will not consider ALL of their users.
I’ve witnessed it personally when a company chooses to ignore accessibility – and the frustration is multiplied when they know that they will not only hinder people, but their possibility of gaining rankings in the search engines. For some companies, alt tags for images are “ugly.�
In my opinion, that’s just arrogant.
