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My name is Vivian Conway and I’m the director of Web Key IT and I’m just finishing a PhD
in website accessibility at Edith Cowen University. I started Web Key IT a couple of years ago
– about two and a half (2 ½) years ago because I realized that there was nobody or
very few people in the field who were qualified to decide whether a website was accessible
or not.
We audit websites. We also offer consultation. We look at the website; we have a group of
testers and we decide whether or not it meets the established guidelines.
A lot of our work – the main part of our work has been the government because the government
has a – it’s called the National Transition Strategy to get government to make their website
accessible and lead by example so that the corporates, non-profits, etc. will follow
suite.
Well I think there’s huge potential obviously because it’s something I’ve put a lot
of effort into. I think that most people are going to realize that having somebody tell
them whether or not they can reach their full audience is gonna be helpful because they
can get 20% more customers or viewers for their website.
At the moment the business has been solely funded by my husband and myself. He’s sort
of a silent director – so there’s myself and my husband are directors. At this point
we haven’t seen a need for it; it may come as we go along but at this point it’s been
possible to do thing ourselves.
Yes, we’ve been busy working. The first six months while we were getting set up was
very quiet but then we got work with the Department of Finance and that was the start of it and
our reputation has been getting out there and we’re getting lots of work.
I just started working and people that knew me knew what I was doing; the federal government
knew what I was looking at doing and they’ve been really supportive.
At the moment I’m a full time PhD student until probably the end of this month so I’ve
been having to do this with the assistance of employees so I’ve been the director and
heading it up and doing most of the face-to-face with clients but I have a team of ten part
time staff and they do the testing. I’ve got a business manager and a projects manager
and she manages the staff for me while I’m busy finishing my PhD but I expect that as
soon as I finish that it will be pretty much full time for me.
The next step is really trying to reach corporate Australia with the message. We want them to
know that, as I mention, that they can get 20% more business because there’s one in
every five people in Australia has a disability that in some way affects their ability to
work, study or to get around and these people use the internet, these people use businesses,
these people buy products and if the websites aren’t done so they can use them properly
then companies are missing out on the business. People vote with their feet; they’ll go
to someone whose website works better for them. So we want to reach corporate Australia,
to let them get the message and also to tell them there is some litigation risks to them
if they don’t do it.
Launching it to corporate Australia really because at the moment it’s been very much
government because they have been told they have to do this whereas corporate Australia
have been very slow getting the message and so what’s really exciting is the people
that we’ve been working with trying to help us reach out to corporate Australia and to
let them know that we can help them to get their websites to work better.
Oh, probably landing flat on my face! I think the biggest fear is that people in corporate
Australia won’t take it seriously. We’ve heard the attitude “I’ll just wait and
see if I get fined and then I’ll do something”. It’s kind of like pirating CDs; people that
just did copies for themselves figured “well I’m never gonna get sued, it’s gonna be
ok”. So smaller businesses are the same; they tend to think “well nobody is gonna
come after me, they’re gonna go after the really big guys first” but all it takes
is a complaint – it doesn’t matter if it’s Joe’s garage or the Prime Minister’s
website because a complaint goes straight to Australian Human Rights Commission so it
doesn’t matter what the size is. My biggest fear is that corporate Australia won’t take
it seriously.
Vision Australia are in the same field. Vision Australia obviously their primary focus is
vision disabilities and we believe that there’s a lot more people out there than just those
with vision disabilities. They do incorporate some other testing as well but our idea is
a more holistic approach.
Yes we’re really excited that we’re going to be working with REM Consulting and it’s
important that we work with an organization that wants to help us get the message out
and to government as well because then we can work through the Common Use Agreement
with them but also to corporate because they have a bigger corporate reach and trying to
market, as I mention, to corporate is quite difficult and we’re really excited that
REM is wanting to work with us. Amanda Mckay:
**************************************************************** I’m incredibly grateful. I’m very excited
about the future – I’m eager to work with Vivian Conway of Web Key IT. The strategic
alliance that we’ve formed between REM Consulting and Web Key IT I believe can reach the masses
that really need to hear these messages. The thing that tickled my fancies so much is the
fact that in this day and age there’s still somebody out there trying to make this world
a better place and if I can be a part of that, I’m incredibly grateful.
Part of the ways that REM Consulting will be assisting Web Key IT is through the CUA
which is the Common Use Agreement which is in place to facilitate different services
that need to be provided to government entities. REM will also be assisting her through publicity,
marketing, also through different ideas really and just rallying up the support of the good
people within the community who also want to make the world a better place.
Obviously the more successful any business entity becomes, the more of a responsibility
that they have within the community so I would love to see some of those great corporate
names stand up and recognize this opportunity to be the leaders; to change the world for
the better.
I think these corporate entities have an opportunity to gain a great deal of publicity but it’s
up to them whether that’s going to be in a positive or negative light.
Well, really – look, its 2014 – what we’re talking about now, in simple terms, is the
digital equivalent of a wheelchair ramp. You wouldn’t deny people access to a building
so why deny them access to public knowledge.
Back to Vivienne Conroy: One of the things that I have found really,
really helpful is using seniors for employees and I think that that’s something we’re
seeing a lot more emphasis in our communities now is the involvement for people who are
recently retired or have been retired for quite a while. When I’m recruiting for staff
I look for two different things; one is a background with some technical knowledge which
is really helpful or empathy for people with disabilities and understanding that it’s
just not another government bureaucracy thing gone mad but that this really changes people’s
lives. So I look for people that have that empathy and I’m finding that very much in
seniors that because of their live experiences and because they’re also getting old and
they’re finding that it’s harder to see or it’s harder to get around; they really
understand the issue. I’m not sure if I should mention that situation with one of
our user testers and this will probably help demonstrate what is really important. This
lady has been living in South Wales; she has been very disabled all her life – being
completely dependent upon other people and she’s never had a job, she’s never been
able to take herself to the grocery store, the bank or anything else. She decided she
wanted to learn how to use a computer but she has no use of her hands. She took herself
to a training centre, the digital accessibility centre where they teach how to use assistive
technology; they taught her how to use a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking which is
voice activation software so now she’s so good at it that they hired her. So she’s
surfing the net, watching YouTube videos, sending emails, researching products, ordering
her groceries, doing her banking and for the first time in her life at 62 is earning a
living. To me, that makes it worthwhile getting up in the morning. It means that people’s
lives change for as little as less than a thousand dollars’ worth of software – completely
changed her life. What would have happened if she would have had that a few years ago?
To me, that’s sort of the reason why we do what we do as people like her that could
lead really meaningful lives, who have been stopped up to now because they haven’t had
the right technology before.