Member Article

Award Winning Web Designer Leading The Focus On Accessibility

An award winning and acclaimed web design company in North Tyneside is stepping up the tempo in their offering by leading the way with designs that are inclusive and focus on accessibility.

Jackdaw Web Design is owned by Jackie Latham and the company, which has been going for over 10 years, has a strong portfolio of corporate and charitable website creations.

In the last few years, with the growth of digital due to many external forces, the need for accessibility is growing and as Jackie is well positioned to deliver such websites, she has had an influx of enquiries from charities and community groups. She said:

“It is so important that online information and websites are inclusive with good accessibility. By ensuring this you are enabling all potential users, including people with disabilities, to have a positive user experience. The more easily they can access your information, the better a response you get. And by implementing accessibility best practice, everyone who visits will have a better usability experience.”

By comparing your website to your company’s policies and governance, you will soon know if you have got the accessibility of your website right. For example, if you have a robust diversity, engagement policy but the website doesn’t reflect that with closed off language, limited ways to access, no translation or a reliance on colour as a navigation tool, then your policy isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

Jackie has recently worked with Beach Access North East on a new website complete with good accessibility, including an accessibility statement. In this the organisation states:

“At Beach Access North East we are committed and passionate about ensuring digital accessibility for as many disabled and impaired people as possible. We are continually improving the user experience for as many users as possible and applying the relevant accessibility standards. We listen to the feedback of affected users and make the necessary adjustments to the usability of our website.”

Jackie continued by explanation:

“The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The Beach Access North East website is conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA.

“This includes things such as guaranteed text minimum contrasts, relevant page titles and headers, skip links, closed captions on videos, autofill forms, readable content, alternative text descriptions on images, and a suitable setting for zoom, amongst others. The statement even goes as far to admit the site’s limitations and asks for feedback from users. A truly inclusive approach.”

If you feel your website needs to meet more accessibility needs, then get in touch with Jackie to discuss what can be done.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .