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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
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. 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. 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.
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