Notice ...

[WebSavvy]

As of 31 Oct 2008, WebSavvy will no longer be selling PinCode submissions. If you wish to "submit" your site prior to our format change, you will need to purchase a PinCode prior to 12:00 PM CST 31 Oct. 2008.

Beginning 1 Nov. 2008, our format will change to that of a Web Accessibility directory. We will not have open submissions. In order for a site to be listed in the new format, the site must at least pass WAI checkpoint 1, and have valid CSS/(x)HTML.

Sites to be included will be found and indexed by our editing staff at WebSavvy. The sites will be evaluated by a few well-known accessibility tools (e.g., Cynthia, Total Validator) and tested using JAWS.

Both myself and Irina know accessibility guidelines forwards, and backwards and if a site doesn't pass -- it will not be listed.

I spent a good deal of time making the directory itself web accessible -- but really, what good does that do if someone with disabilities can use my directory if the sites listed in it are NOT accessible? Well, that's going to change. :)

Sites that are currently listed in our index (if it was a paid submission) will be placed in a category called "Commercial", and if it's web accessible it will be denoted as such.

All other non-paid submissions will still be listed (accessible or not) and will be denoted as such.

All web accessible sites we index (under the new format) will be in the main directory under a new category structure. We're still mapping this out and expect to have the work completed by the end of the year.

[ihelpyou]

I think it's a nice change Deb. :)

[WebSavvy]

Thanks, Doug. I'm pretty excited about it. :)

[IncrediBILL]

I think you're missing a bigger $$$ opportunity for all your hard work.

After the Target lawsuit fiasco, you should position yourself to certify accessible sites for your directory and charge sites to get certified.

If you can give submissions a substantial audience looking for accessible sites it's a win-win.

I would position it as a "Best of the Blind Web" and even though you're adding listings, allow people to make submissions for commercial sites with the fee putting them on top of the stack.

If you certify them for free where's the fun, er, money in that?

[SEFL]

I can't believe this, but Bill and I are going to have to part ways and disagree on something.

Although Deb is more than capable of judging whether a website is accessible or not, as are Irina and probably Danny (not sure on Danny because he knows so much about spam), the only people who really know that are the people who are regulars (and more specifically mods) in this forum.

The tools, while not public knowledge, do exist for checking/validating a site. Deb's mentioned a few of them. Here's a semi-updated list (http://www.section508.gov/IDEAS/pres/JITC/TextOnly/Slide24.html) of a bunch more (although not totally up-to-date, since BOBBY got bought by the evil empire known as IBM and immediately turned from a nice free tool into an unofficial proctology exam).

The only way Deb could tap into the market would be to found a not-for-profit, bloated organization with a healthy dose of government lifer thinking provided by former civil servants who couldn't possibly get jobs in the private sector that don't require hair nets and/or sanitary gloves and giant squirt bottles of Windex. She'd also have to make sure to constantly overemphasize the importance of her task by saying things like "We DON'T do ENOUGH for the DISABLED ONLINE!" and having all of her subordinates repeat them ad nauseam until they lose all meaning.

I gotta agree with her logic here.

[WebSavvy]

Adam, thanks for the link to the list of other validators. I'll have to take a look at it later.

Bill, sites will be listed in order of their WAI rating. All sites that pass WAI checkpoint #3 will be listed first, followed by #2, and #1 checkpoint sites.

In the very beginning, we'll be adding accessible sites on our own until we've populated the categories well enough. Following that, we will allow submissions -- however, it will be with the understanding that the site must be web accessible prior to submission, or Irina and I may be hired as consultants to review the site and suggest the changes needed to make the site accessible.

The site owner will be the one that will be responsible for making the changes to their own site under our guidance. Irina and I will not be making any code/content changes ourselves.

This is something she and I have had in planning for quite a while now. She's just as passionate about accessibility as I am.

LOL @ Adam, yep ... Danny's catching on to accessibility too. We discus it a lot in our editors forum. Danny's role is a bit larger in our team, because he's our "Go To" guy, about everything spam-related.

I'm not concerned with making money doing this. In fact, I don't care if it makes a dime. I'm doing this for much bigger, less self-serving reasons. Information should be accessible to all; not just to those that are able-bodied.

I just want to be allowed the chance to make a difference in a way that really matters, and really counts. This is all about them.