Purdue University Calumet Library Home Page
Our Web Accessibility Partner for the Month of November is Information Services Web Communications Coordinator Bienjen Kortmann.
Bienjen is responsible for the Library and the Information Services Web sites, two very large sites with many complicated components. She also works to help develop other Web applications and projects.
Putting the Policy into Practice
Information Services Home Page
Bienjen has been a member of the Electronic & Information Technology Accessibility Action and Strategic Committees since they were formed in the summer of 2011. She has a good understanding of the Web Accessibility Policy guidelines and she puts those guidelines into practice for every project on which she works.
Retrofitting a Site is More Expensive
Bienjen makes sure that accessibility is baked in at the beginning of a project, understanding that it is so much harder and so much more expensive in terms of time and people-hours to retrofit a site or an application, rather than to start with accessibility in mind. As experts in the field of accessibility, Brian Wentz, Paul T. Jaeger, and Jonathan Lazar wrote regarding the cost of retrofitting a Web site in the online journal First Monday:
The cost of accessibility when carefully planned and designed is almost zero. However, extreme challenges and significant expenses are often involved in the process of retrofitting an existing website for accessibility.
Sharing Her Wealth of Knowledge
She also is willing to share her knowledge and to offer support to others who need assistance, which is a key characteristic of a Partner.
We are proud to have Bienjen on our team and happy to name her our Web Accessibility Partner of the Month for November!
Filed under Web Accessibility Partners.
