Educating the client when it comes to accessibility

I have recently been working on a new version of the Hackett website which I must admit caused us some headaches with accessibility - some I'm not sure we've solved at all - here at designuk which raised the point for me about how aware client's actually are about accessbility.

I mean 9 times out of 10 it appears agencies tend to take a marketeer and a designer when it comes to new projects... Maybe they'll throw in an account handler, to keep them under control, but only on very rare occasions is a development consultant included in the initial meetings - you only have to look at the recent dire consequences such as River Island and French Connection to know that's true.

I know for a fact Diesel can't/don't care about accessibility with the amount of Flash they use on their website(s)!!!

So if you work at an agency and as your company's accessibility advocat then stand up and be counted... In fact gone are the days when developers had to sit in the corner with their headphones and Metallica t-shirts on, stroking their goatee beards - it's time to stand up and be counted!

Only we can make a difference in educating the clients at the end of the day - not the arty farty designers or the marketeers with their acronyms and speil.