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Planning
for Accessibility
As with
any IT project, planning for accessibility is a key element. At Accessful
Consulting, we have developed straightforward, yet flexible tools and
processes that aid in our success. We put people at the center of our
approach and work with you to ensure understanding of our methodology
from the beginning. But why is planning important? Put quite simply, planning
helps ensure that your business goals are reached as efficiently, accurately
and timely as possible.
At any given
point, any organization can expend resources to analyze and modify a web
site to ensure accessibility. The problem is that unless the related web
processes are understood and documented, new or modified content can quickly
become inaccessible. Our goal is to understand the client's processes
and content architecture in order to jointly develop and deliver a working,
usable Accessibility Plan.
Step
One
Identify the 5 W's and 1 H for the content on your web site.
- Who
- Who is the source of your content? This is important to understand.
A specific name for each piece of content is not necessary. It is important
to classify classes of content and their sources. For instance,
it would be important to understand that all attorneys within your organization
are responsible for submitting legal documents to be posted on the web
site.
- What
- What is the content? What we want to know is the nature of the content.
Here again, classes of content are sufficient. For example, you may
have 20% corporate information, 50% product line information, and 30%
password-protected client account information.
- When
- How often is the existing content updated and how often is
new content posted? Some content that may be data-driven could
be real-time and always changing. Other content may remain static for
a number of years. It is important to understand and document this.
- Where
- Where is the content on your site? How the information and data is
organized on your site plays an extremely important role in planning
for accessibility.
- Why
- Why is this content on your site? Understanding who the target audience
is and exactly what you are trying to accomplish with specific content
is paramount in building a usable and accessible site.
- How
- How is the content created? This goes hand-in-hand with the "Who"
above, but we do want to know whether the content is dynamic and database-driven
or if it is a static page that is maintained by an HTML coder.
Step
Two
Contact Accessful Consulting! Better yet, call
us before step one and let our experience guide you from the beginning.
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