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A Cost-Benefit Approach for Accessible Web Presence

  • Conference paper
Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP 2004)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 3118))

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Abstract

Providing an accessible Web presence is often regarded as an ethical or social obligation. Profit-oriented enterprises in particular tend to interpret the implementation of “barrier-free” access to their websites as a cost-intensive technological gimmick rather than as a business opportunity. This paper provides systematic insight into the cost and benefit drivers that might determine a purely rational management decision on Web presence that takes accessibility into consideration. The relative price for one percentage point of audience increase (“reach”) combines cost-benefit aspects, and provides the basis for a quantitative, scenario-based, general approach that reveals possible savings for enterprises of various sizes under differing cost assumptions and provides a viable, easy-to-use framework for individual use cases.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Studies, University of Vienna, Bruenner Str. 72, A-1210, Vienna, Austria

    Valeska Heerdt & Christine Strauss

Authors
  1. Valeska Heerdt
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  2. Christine Strauss
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Integriert Studieren, Johannes Kepler Universität, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040, Linz, Austria

    Klaus Miesenberger

  2. Studienzentrum fuer Sehgeschaedigte, Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH), Germany

    Joachim Klaus

  3. fortec - Research Group on Rehabilitation Technology, Institute integrated study, Vienna Univ. of Technology, Favoritenstr. 11/029, A-1040, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang L. Zagler

  4. INSERM U592 – Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Association BrailleNet, 9, quai Saint Bernard, 75252, Paris cedex 05, France

    Dominique Burger

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Heerdt, V., Strauss, C. (2004). A Cost-Benefit Approach for Accessible Web Presence. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W.L., Burger, D. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3118. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27817-7_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27817-7_49

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22334-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-27817-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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