[Athen] Fw: Office365 - Online vs Desktop applications for accessibility

[tristenbreitenfeldt at gmail.com]

I think the bigger issue to consider is that employees with disabilities,
(especially screen reader users) would have a very difficult (if not
impossible) time using the online Office applications.   I am a blind screen
reader user and I used to be an accessibility tester; some of the
applications I was testing were the online Microsoft Office applications.
They are not great for accessibility or usability, and I fear that if your
campus decided to use only the online Office suite, they would be excluding
a significant population of employees, which could leave the college open to
legal action.  That's just my two cents.

I am strongly in favor of finding ways to save money, but cost-saving
measures that are not accessible will eventually backfire in one way or
another.  Another option might be providing incentives to employees to use
their own (personal Office subscription/installation key on their work
machine.  That way, the college would not need to pay for as many Office 365
subscriptions.) 

I realize that this answer may not be a popular answer, but when weighing
the annual cost of Office 365 against potential lawsuits and negative
publicity, I'm pretty sure that keeping the desktop versions of Office will
prove to be much less expensive in the long run.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tristen Breitenfeldt

 <http://www.freedomscientific.com/Certification> 

 

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