Influence of accessibility related activities on the usability of business software

Abstract

To make business software accessible to users with disabilities is often seen by software developers as an additional burden, which is only beneficial for a small group of users. We will argue in this paper that this perception is not correct. Our experience from several projects shows that often the general usability of an application improves significantly when it is made accessible for disabled users. Especially expert users of the application profit often directly from the enhancements made for accessibility. This results from the fact that their special needs are in many aspects identical to the special needs of disabled users. We will discuss and explain this observation from a theoretical point of view. In addition we will demonstrate several examples, which show that following the existing guidelines for accessibility will also generate a benefit for non-disabled users of a software product. © Springer-Verlag 2004.