A cost-benefit approach for accessible Web presence

Abstract

Providing an accessible Web presence is often regarded as an ethical or social obligation. Profit-oriented enterprises in particular tend to interpret the implementation of "barrier-free" access to their websites as a cost-intensive technological gimmick rather than as a business opportunity. This paper provides systematic insight into the cost and benefit drivers that might determine a purely rational management decision on Web presence that takes accessibility into consideration. The relative price for one percentage point of audience increase ("reach") combines cost-benefit aspects, and provides the basis for a quantitative, scenario-based, general approach that reveals possible savings for enterprises of various sizes under differing cost assumptions and provides a viable, easy-to-use framework for individual use cases. © Springer-Verlag 2004.