Why Accessibility is important

There are at least three reasons that might motivate a company to create accessible web content:

• To improve the lives of people with disabilities (human-centered motivations)
• To capitalize on a wider audience or consumer base (marketing or economic-centered motivations)
• To avoid lawsuits and/or bad press (public relations and punishment-centered motivations)

Accessibility driven web sites accomplish all these goals when people are at the center of the process.

This is why the Kaffeinated Kodemonkey team strives to use the POUR principles set forth by the WCAG:

• Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can't be invisible to all of their senses)
• Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable. This means that users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)
• Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding)
• Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)

Those who are simply trying to avoid lawsuits realize they must be considered and addressed people with disabilities within their targeted audience.