The Yahoo Experience: Design for Inclusion

"My goal in having people come in here," Brightman tells me before having me slap some vision-imparing goggles on my head, "is that when they walk out of here, they don't see the world in the same way ever again." ~ Mike Cassidy in the San Jose Mercury News

Mike Casssidy interviews Alan Brightman at Yahoo:

Brightman points out that the interest in accessibility isn't just about doing the right thing. There are 60 million disabled people in the United States, he tells me right off, citing a number in line with U.S. Census figures.

"Those 60 million people have an annual aggregate income of $1 trillion," he says, again referring to figures from the National Organization on Disability, a nonprofit advocacy group. "Two hundred twenty billion of that, Mike, is discretionary. You can see now why Yahoo might care about these folks."

They seem to care enough that they have brought in some quality staff and built a lab:

The 2 1/2-year-old lab -- an effort similar to those under way at many large companies and organizations -- aims to make Yahoo's Web sites easier to navigate for those who can't see well, or at all, or who have trouble hearing or who can't move their arms or work their fingers.

While attention to computing accessibility has grown in recent years, the overall results have been mixed. And as the Web evolves -- becoming more interactive, using improved programming language and featuring more multimedia -- the effort to keep it accessible requires vigilance.

Source :
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14698496?nclick_check=1