This document discusses accessibility initiatives within an enterprise. It covers three main topics: [1] Winning the business case for accessibility by understanding business objectives and championing the initiative; [2] Developing accessibility policies and processes through standards, stakeholder buy-in and integrating accessibility into product lifecycles; and [3] Training and testing through user-centered design, disability inclusion and continuous improvement.

1. Enterprise Accessibility Round Table
Tales of Adventure in the Wild World of Big Business…

2. The Adventure of a Lifetime!
• Winning the Business Case
• Developing Policy and Process
• Training and Testing

3. The Adventure of a Lifetime!
1. Where are we going?
2. How do we get there?
3. What lies ahead?
4. What did you experience?

4. Winning the Business Case

5. Winning the Business Case
Where are we going?
• What kind of company are you?
• What are your primary business objectives?
• How good are your relationships?
• What are your primary risks, prioritized?
• What does your company consider a game
changing move?
• How does the budget work?
• Who are the deciders?
• What are their key measures of success?

6. Winning the Business Case
How do we get there?
• The Accessibility Road Show!
• The risks
• The rewards
• The humanity
• The plan
• Let accessibility be the solution to any problem!
• Work harder than anyone else to find the answers!
• Be a fixer, a resource, a collaborator!
• Be a champion for your allies!
• Be relentlessly positive!
• Be fearless!

7. Winning the Business Case
What lies ahead?
• Look for opportunity in innovation
• Look for digital governance and standards
• Empower the User Champions
• Build the business case, adapt, then build again
• Soon there will be time for pragmatism, for realism,
but not yet…

8. Winning the Business Case
What did you experience?
• Cabbages, oak trees, and apples
• The beauty of a pilot
• Six little characters can be huge
• Get in early, adjust often
• Look, I made a Flash movie!

9. Developing Policy and Process

10. Developing Policy and Process
Where are we going?
• So you have your business case. Now what?
• a11y buy-in - management, team, etc.
• Cherry picking your a11y standards.
• WCAG 2.0, AODA, CDN govt. a11y Standard.
• ISO/IEC 40500 – a game changer?
• WCAG 2.0 - arid reading.
• Achieving Conformance – Where to Start?

11. Developing Policy and Process
How do we get there?
• Adopting vs. Adapting.
• Defining the scope.
• ACS - Fighting the a11y Checklist Syndrome
• Stakeholder accountability.
• a11y in the lifecycle.
• Breaking it down. Really.

12. Developing Policy and Process
What lies ahead?
• Five Stages of Web Accessibility
• Denial - “PWD aren't my target audience!”
• Anger - “This is a barrier to my creativity!”
• Bargaining - “Isn't level A enough?!”
• Depression - “It's never good enough!”
• Acceptance - “We can do this!”

13. Developing Policy and Process
What did you experience?
• Bad - a11y as last minute QA.
• Good - a11y in the early stages.
• The Power of Planning.
• Organizational Changes.
• Cultural Shifts – Resistance.
• Pragmatism – Choosing your battles.
• Baby Steps to Greatness.

14. Training and Testing

15. Training and Testing
What did you experience?
3 Million Hours with Nothing to Show For It
• From design to disaster; accolades to refunds
• Redesigned components
• Field tests to relaunch
• Goal: “kill the competition”
• Invention, innovation, execution

16. Training and Testing
Where are we going?
Users. Users. Users. Semper Paratus
• Why do you develop your product?
• In a group of ten users, at least one is likely to
have a disability
• A culture for the future
• Reinvent yourself or fall behind or die

17. Training and Testing
How do we get there?
Pesky Little Practical Details
• Testing as a core and not a process
• Include users with disabilities in all aspects of product
creation
• Design/conception, and UX
• Development
• User accepted testing and disability specific testing
• Unstructured and a/b testing
• Post-production Feedback is a form of testing
• Introspection, the beginning and the end
• Expect to fall behind and plan to get ahead
• Involve all—from design to testing
• Tactics = self-direction, structured training, building
internal and external expertise, social and professional
networks, time for personal projects

18. Training and Testing
What lies ahead?
Shore Up the Core
• Are your users satisfied?
• Can you do better in the next iteration?
• Are you taking shortcuts?
• The cost of reinvention >= profit
• Constant, accelerating changes in fields lead to
shorter time for failure without building a
foundation in knowledge and continuous rebuilding

19. Questions?
Elle Waters Denis Boudreau Pratik Patel
Simply Accessible Deque Systems Patel EZFire
@Nethermind @dboudreau @ppatel
elle@simplyaccessible.com db@deque.com pratikp1@gmail.com