RE: Accessibility

What I've found is that focusing on accessibility also increases usability.  For many portal sites, which tend to be focused on helping people learn, manage knowledge,  etc; the content is the focus, not the creative presentation.  The user/guests want to be able to search and print and link and forward info to peers, customers, vendors, prospects etc.  They don't want to wait for "look what I can do" to load, they want to grab and go.

A user can determine very quickly If a site is focused on "look at me" or usefulness.  Once a user/guest detects that a site isn't focused on their needs, they'll leave that site and search for alternate access to the content they need.  Users that won't use a site because they find it unusable tends to negatively impact ROI when you go for that next round budget approval for site support and refinement.

Plus, a lot of the techniques to make a site "creative" tend to lock content into a concrete presentation that isn't very flexible or reusable for different environments.

We like the challenge to our creativity required to make a site usable, accessible and still have visual impact.

Christie Mason