Accessibility

Recently, I had to visit the US Embassy in my local country to take care of a few businesses. While I was there, I noticed a couple picking up their baby push chair to carry it up the stairs of the embassy. That is when I realized, the accessibility of this building was very limited to those that were physically fit enough to walk up the stairs. Not only that, the person needs to be fit enough to carry those that are unable to carry themself up the stairs.

I thought to myself, how could America, a country that prides itself to be leading the world on handicap rights, not have a wheel chair ramp? I understand that my country is not known to be wheel chair friendly in the slightest, but the US embassy is considered to be American soil, which you follow by American Law, not the country it sits within. That got me thinking, how would this sit back with the Politicians in America. I had to look up the law and realized, all American public buildings must be handicap accessible; ALL! Please see wikipedia Disability Rights in America

After this, I began to realize, how does Web Analytics handles this accessible issue. Yes, we could give everyone within the company access to the tool and data, but does this truly give them access to the data? Just because a building has a wheel chair ramp does not mean it is not wheel chair friendly. Giving access is just the first part.

As a member of the Web Analytics community, we not only have to give access to our stakeholders to the data, but we need to ensure that they can truly be self-serve. Self-serve to the point where they can freely access their own data and perform basic reporting analysis, ensuring the stakeholder does not have to wait for a simple report. This ensures the insight team is freed to do what their job requires; delivering insight that will benefit the company.

I want everyone to promise that they will do everything to ensure that they do everything possible to make Web Analytics accessible to their stakeholders. Do not just build a wheelchair ramp, but make their entire building is accessible. A self-serving stakeholder will ultimately be a happier stakeholder.

I would like to know, how accessible is your company? What are you doing to ensure that the web analytics data is accessible?