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Tip #1: Integrate accessible design from the start

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The reason to integrate accessible design from the start, is not only because retrofitting will cost

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more. Retrofitting is for information and communication technology is similar constructing a house and

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not leaving room for the ramp. You're going to have to do a lot of tearing down and changing, and so that's

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costly. So if its done from the start it need not cost any more, in fact what it might do is save money.

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Because accessible design allows easier updating. It means more flexible adaptable design, so it means

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you can reach a larger customer base.

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Tip #2: Choose the right development tools

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Development and authoring tools are your friend. The wonderful thing about development and authoring

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tools is that they can prompt support, provide the necessary utilities such that you are guided and

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almost lead through the process of accessible design. So someone that isn't very knowledgeable

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about accessible design and may not be very motivated, by virtue of using the right development or authoring

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tools, where accessibility is built in, they will produce accessible designs.

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There are international guidelines on how to create authoring tools that will support the creation

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of accessible web content. These are called the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines.

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So in finding a development tool kit or authoring tool, you can look for ATAG compliant, as they are

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called, authoring tools, and they will provide that support, that guidance and that prompting that helps

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you to create accessible web content.

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Tip #3 Focus the message and keep its presentation flexible

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Good communications means getting the message to your audience. The lesson that I think we need to learn,

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is that there is no typical audience. There is no typical or average end user.

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So good design mean flexible design. Most people when they create a communication message, or web content,

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or an application, the first thing they think about is presentation.

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But in fact what we should be thinking is what is the goal, what is the message that I want to communicate.

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And then enable flexible presentations. What that allows you to do is re-purpose that same product, that

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application, or that web content, for the various audiences. You're going to be much more successful if

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it's going to be much more usable, it's going to communicate the message much better, if you have that

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flexible presentation, that can shift according to who your audience member is.

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Tip #4: Increase your market: Look for "electronic curbcuts"

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Startups should be looking for electronic curbcuts and what we mean by electronic curbcuts is this phenomenon

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that whenever you design something for individuals with disabilities, who are, albeit at the margins

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of your custom base, it usually benefits everyone.

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One very very current and good example of this, is here in Toronto we had a legal challenge that required that the

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street car stop be called out automatically. And while that was intended for someone who is blind,

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who couldn't see what the streets were that were coming up, everyone benefits from that particular redesign.

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There is a wonderful site that collects all of these examples. It is the electronic curb cuts site. If you

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just google electronic curb cut you'll see a collection of all of the things that we now come to depend

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upon that were originally created for people with disabilities. and it includes things like voice recognition,

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text-to-speech, email, and things that you'll be very very surprised about.

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Tip #5: Use a diversity of perspectives and challenges

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If you want innovation and creativity in your designs, and you want your products or the things that you're

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designing, to have the greatest possible usability across the greatest number of consumers, then the

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best way to do that is to engage individuals with a diversity of perspectives who have experienced

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the greatest variety of challenges, directly in your design team from the start.

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There's research to show the more diverse a team is, the more likely they will make good predictions,

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they will plan better and they will come up with more innovative and useful ideas.