Lists of Consultants

Introduction

This section includes links to lists of consultants who practice in the field of accessible technology. You may find it helpful to preview the questions for consultants prior to contacting anyone.

We also provide a few comments about the general state of affairs in several areas of accessibility consulting. In some cases, the availability of consultants is limited, so you may have to pay a higher rate and/or wait for consultants with those areas of expertise. In other cases, the supply of consultants is ample, and you will have plenty of choices.

Notes on Consulting Practice in this Area

Web Accessibility Consultants

There are a very large number of choices for anyone looking for a consultant to assist with making websites accessible. This area has taken off over the last few years, and with a range of choice comes a very diverse range of capabilities. There are large consultancies that do nothing but web accessibility, all the way down to individuals who do web accessibility on the side.

You should evaluate the consultant’s knowledge and ability to design for Section 508 and W3C requirements. Also check the consultant’s ability to work with the development environments and tools you use to create your websites.

Be sure to define the consulting services that you want and need. Some consultants will have limited skills, such as the capability to run automated checks of your site using tools (e.g. "Bobby" or "Wave"). More advanced consultants will be able to help you with the actual interface design process, training of your staff, and implementation of design process changes so that accessibility considerations are built into your organization’s standard procedures.

Telecommunications Products Consultants

At present, there are few consultants who are specialists in the accessibility of telecommunications products. Although this area is over five years old, progress in industry generally has been very slow, and the pool of consultants who have gone into this type of work full time is surprisingly limited. You may have to search through the lists of consultants to find those who do this work, and then contact them to determine if they are available and if they can help you address your organization's problems with respect to Section 255 and/or Section 508.

Other Product Consultants

The number of consultants who specialize in the design of directly accessible consumer, office, and public use electronic products is very small. The task of finding a consultant who has experience and a proven track record in this field might be difficult, but it is by no means impossible.

Bear in mind that a search for consultants in this area involves finding experts who are able and willing to help you make a standard product directly accessible to people with visual, hearing, and physical difficulties. What you may come across is a number of consultants who suggest or urge you to simply find some method of attaching an assistive technology (AT) to your product. The process of redesigning a product for attachment of an AT may be more arduous and expensive than making the standard product directly accessible; but there are more consultants who are familiar with assistive technologies than consultants who are familiar with direct accessibility.

You should take some time to define exactly what you want to achieve before contacting any consultants.

Lists of Consultants

The following organizations maintain lists of accessibility consultants and other service providers. In all cases, the lists are updated by the consultants themselves and none of the organizations can vouch for the credibility of the listed providers. The lists are offered as a starting point, and you should be prepared to evaluate the consultants’ credentials and experience as needed to ensure a successful engagement.

• ITTATC maintains a list of consultants and their capabilities
• The General Services Administration (GSA) maintains a "Buy Accessible" database that provides a search capability of service providers (and products)
• For Canada, the government's Industry Canada office maintains a searchable database of Canadian companies and their capabilities

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