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Raising Awareness Hastens Change

IBM is retooling its Web site as part of a companywide initiative to make all its products accessible. Kim Stephens, Webmaster at IBM's accessibility center, says the biggest challenge is educating employees on the importance of Web accessibility.

"We've found that one of the most effective motivators it to let someone hear how their Web page sounds," Stephens says. "When they hear how broken it sounds, that will inspire them to change it."

Making a Web site accessible "does take a little bit of extra time, but once you're familiar with the guidelines, it goes very quickly," Stephens adds. "It also takes a lot less energy to make your Web site accessible from the beginning, rather than to go back and retool everything."

Impatient for Change

In some instances, advocates for the disabled are prodding corporations to make their sites accessible. The California Council of the Blind is working toward settlements with many large financial institutions to make banking and other financial services on their Web sites navigable by screen readers.

The council has reached settlements with Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

"It's really important to get people in the institutions to understand why the technology should be accessible," says Lainey Feingold, a disability rights lawyer who represents the organization. "We approached the banks and said, 'You have a problem here.' They've been totally on board."

Bank of America, which claims that more than 2.1 million customers bank on its Web site, began working with the council last spring to revamp its site.

"We have more than 3000 pages on our Web site. There's a lot of content that needs to be looked at and modified, so it will take some time to deliver this service," says Linda Mueller, a Bank of America spokesperson. The bank has no formal time line for completing the project.

This summer, the National Federation of the Blind reached a similar settlement with America Online. The organization had sued AOL, alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because its content could not be used with screen-reading programs. AOL is modifying its site to make it more accessible.

Although progress is slow, the good news is that many Web retailers feel that accessibility is an important goal. Joe Brockmeier, vice president of marketing at LinuxMall.com, says that LinuxMall has always designed its site with accessibility in mind. "It's just good business," he says.

Luisa Bustos of IDG Australia contributed to this report.