Traditional business is simple. You create a product or service you think customers will want, and then spend money to drive people towards that product or service. If you're lucky, some of those people will want to user your product or service and you'll make money. This can be through direct charges or, in the case of content creation, selling this attention on to other companies.
I've been a strong proponent of web standards since first being introduced to them "back in 2000 by Jefrey Zeldman":http://www.zeldman.com/com0100b.html. I started discussing standards on my "local mailing list":http://www.brightonnewmedia.org/, then on my blog, and finally at conferences and events. I even "wrote a book":http://www.cssmastery.com/ on the subject.
A few months ago I had the pleasure of being invited to talk to a group of civil servants on the subject of "blogging in government":http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/09/blogging_in_government/. The talk was part of a larger event that also covered web accessibility, so myself and "Tom":http://www.plasticbag.org/ were only really able to scratch the surface. The day was really fun, and I was surprised how interested people were in the subject. So much so, I was invited back to give an expanded talk, which I gave yesterday.
I was listening to "Derek Featherstone's":http://www.boxofchocolates.ca/ "WE05 podcast":http://we05.com/podcast/ the other day and he mentioned how the "5 stages of grief":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief mirrored many peoples experience of web accessibility. You would start off with *denial*, claiming that accessibility wasn't an issue that you needed to be aware of. You would then move into *anger*, being annoyed that you were forced to do something you didn't want to do. You would then start *bargaining*; "how about if I only reach single-A conformance?". You would next hit *depression*, being frustrated about how difficult things were. And lastly, you would come to *acceptance* making accessibility part of your every day life.
Today I had the pleasure of giving a talk to members of the governments e-communications network, part of the larger Government Communication Network. In the first of a series of events, the group invited a number of people from the web design community to discuss the subjects of accessibility and blogging. Along with Joe Clark, Alastair Campbell, Patrick Lauke and Tom Coates, I was given the honour of being asked to speak.