Stephen Rodriguez - Review & Testimonial

In general, Steven, just tell me what made you look for a web accessibility solution for your clients?

So I had a client that reached out to me. They were part of one of the largest real estate companies on the planet, the part of an international organization. They reached out to me, and they said we just got a letter from the home office stating that realtors are being sued because their websites are not accessibility compliant.

Like they're not compliant for accessibility issues for those with disabilities, the blind, et cetera. And I said, ha, and I heard about a case, with a guy who's named Guillermo Robles that had sued Domino's pizza and had heard about it and just kind of kept it in the back of my mind and

won the case. The Domino's was fighting it, and they were trying to take it all through the ninth circuit and the Supreme court and the whole thing. And I thought, okay, well, keep a mental note on that. Then my client calls me like a year later, two years later, and then he sends me that email, and he's like, can you help us? And I said, well, I have to figure something out.

So I immediately started researching, and I said we could retrofit their sites at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. That's not going to be good for them or us because it will tie up our agency, and it's going to tie up their resources.

So I was looking around, found accessiBe, and said, this is going to work well. We installed it on some of our sites to test it out, to make sure that it worked for our clients. And it worked exceptionally well. We had that installed in our client's sites, and then we've required it for all of our builds that we're doing for all of our high-end clients.

We're saying everybody needs to do this. It's going to protect you.

I can't guarantee you won't get sued. Still, certainly, if you do, you can demonstrate that you did take steps to make an effort, to be able to give accessibility options to your clients that

required those specific considerations. So that's how that happened.

Wow. Fantastic. I'm happy that you've been able to put kind of accessiBe on the forefront now of your business, as well as you've mentioned. It’s telling your clients that there is a solution in place.

I kind of, that was answered already kind of already, but I'll ask it may be in a slightly different way, just kind of as I have it on my side. But why is it important for you to make also your client’s websites accessible?

There're two reasons for that. Reason number one, I've had maybe they probably want you to

The answer, like there are two reasons why I think I should make the client's website accessible as or something just for the video.

Sure, so there are two reasons why we would want to make our client’s sites accessible. Number one, I've had a brush with a disability, nothing visually, but just like being able to walk.

That's a long story I won't get into, but that gave me the perspective that people out there need accessibility issues. I'm sorry that need accessibility options

because they have specific accessibility issues, and they need to be able to have

access and equal access to certain things.

So that's number one first and foremost because I believe everybody needs to have equal access to the beautiful opportunity that’s online services.

Number two, it’s also to protect the clients, my clients, specifically to protect them from any type of litigation, as much as possible, as much as we can help insulate them from that.

Granted, we can't; we’re not a legal firm or anything like that, so we can't guarantee that nothing will happen, but we make our best effort to ensure that we provide them with the best options to protect themselves. And so that way they can also deliver to their customers an outstanding experience on websites and everyone wins. You're protected. People have access. It's a win-win for everybody.

Amazing Steven. Yeah. It sounds like you definitely also have a story and I'm pretty inspired also by your responses. Yes, it's nice to hear.

So my final question, in general, is obviously why did you choose to partner with accessiBe?

I realized that there was an opportunity for a win-win also with accessiBe. I appreciated that accessiBe was very, and I'll use the term generous with its commissions to allow their partners to participate.

I think that was also very appealing because it gave me the impression that accessiBe is a company looking out, not only for people with accessibility issues but also for clients who need protection from litigation and partners. They're looking for passionate partners, and that resonates with their mission. They want to compensate those partners accordingly. And it was nice to partner with a company that kept all of those perspectives in mind to help everyone benefit from their product and service.

So it's rare, I think that you fin type of win-win-win situation where every single person can benefit from this service that's being brought to bear.

Fantastic.

And anything else, obviously, Steven, I'm just so happy to have you here, to have happy clients and partners with us.

Uh, yeah.

Listen, I also work here for a reason because I genuinely believe in our solution in what we're trying to do and accomplish it.

Anything else kind of that you want to say about accessiBe in general? As kind of last final words?

Just that I appreciate the company, I appreciate the company. I appreciate what the company is trying to do and how it's trying to do it. I appreciate the fact that accessiBe is looking out for everyone within the equation. And I stress that point because it's kind of like with our mission.

I think it resonated with us because our mission centers around three things: connection, messaging, and process. It's all based on love and connection, meaning that you have to care about the people you’re engaging with legitimately. You have to communicate that message of love and connection to them legitimately. That’s your messaging, your marketing, and then you have to deliver an experience for them.

That’s an outstanding process, but it's all based on love, and it's all based on connection. And the fact that accessiBe is trying to do something. I believe it creates this beautiful symbiosis between their partners, between the websites, and allows individuals just to get the access they do need. Suppose they do have specific disabilities that prevent them from having access otherwise. It doesn't hit home until you, yourself, haven't had a brush with a disability that you go, or have been disabled that you go, okay, this is an entirely new perspective that I didn't consider before.

Once you have that consideration in place to have a company like accessiBe, that's saying we’re considering that first and foremost, to make sure that everyone is getting access to the best of our ability. That ability is good; it’s not just to the best of our ability and let's just throw something out there.

It’s a good product that I think speaks volumes about, just indirectly company culture.

It speaks about mission, vision, and really what the company is trying to do. And so I just, I appreciate that. And that was one of the reasons we also said we've got to; it’s a pleasure to partner with you all. So there you go.

Steven, you’re a gem. You’re. Thank you. Wow. You speak beautifully and eloquently, especially about accessiBe; thank you so much for agreeing to talk to me.