Case Study for Accessible Website Services/Accessibility/Clear-Links to Triple A
- AAA standards (W3C)
What is web site accessibility?
Web site accessibility means the site's content must be available to the
vast majority, including people with disabilities eg impaired sight, dyslexia, learning
disability, or unable to use a mouse. Furthermore, it should be presented in a clear
and simple manner and should provide understandable mechanisms to navigate within
and between pages; this is commonly referred to as 'website usability'.
Accessible website design is about removing obstacles to tools that a person with
a disability is using, to access web based information. For example, people with
very little or no vision read web pages with the help of access technology installed
on their computer; an accessible web site is essential for this. Designing with
website accessibility in mind enables synthesised speech software to read the content
of web pages correctly; a person with dyslexia may regard website accessibility
as the ability to change the colour of the font or background to meet personal preference.
Clear-Links - the highest standard of web site accessibility (W3C triple A)
Clear Links provide services for disabled and dyslexic people in their in
further and higher education and in the workplace. The service also recruits and
supports disability support workers in a wide variety of roles.
SynergiDesign is experienced in designing websites to high standards of website
accessibility and has a long established working relationship with Marie Norris,
Clear Links director, who is a specialist in the field of disability.
Web site accessibility was key to the design and functionality of the Clear Links
website and the partnership has resulted in a highly successful, accessible website
project with full functionality that is clear cut with maximum ease of use.
Designing an Accessible Website
The Clear-Links website is designed to International standards of accessibility,
that is to the highest standard; W3C AAA
- Access keys and Accessible Forms
- 'Skip over repeated elements' such as navigation menus
- Functionality allowing the website user to select their preference colour scheme
(e.g. to aid visual impairment)
- Ability to alter text size
- Data tables constructed and labelled in an accessible manner
- Text equivalents for graphics
- A website design that can be read by assistive technologies, such as screen reader
software
- Accessible equivalents for functions such as 'email a friend'
- A technique of making links descriptive and logical
- Sufficient colour contrast between the text and background and that colour alone
is not used to convey information
- Style sheets to allow maximum flexibility
- Header tags and tables summaries added to the website to improve its clarity
Clear Links conforms to the following International Standards of Website Accessibility:
-
W3C's "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0", level Triple-A. Conformance
to these Guidelines helps make the website more accessible to users with disabilities
and will benefit all users.
- On-line testing validation to Conformance Level "Triple-A" of web pages: all Priority
1, 2 and 3 checkpoints are satisfied
- That the web page complies to international standards of HTML (the programming language
behind the web)
- That the web page meets Cascading Style sheet standards (the language that should
be used for the presentation (styling) of a website
- That the web page is viewed accurately on a text only Browser (in this case, Lynx)
Website Accessibility Testing
- To ensure compliance to international standards, thereby guaranteeing that different
browsers will render the web page as intended and that assistive technology (which
is designed considering these standards) works well
- With a text only browser (Lynx)
- With Webxact (Watchfire) / Bobby to test the validity to accessibility (WAI) standards
of web pages
- For colour contrast by printing in black and white and checking how readable the
site is
- Screen reader software
- Different screen resolutions
- Different platforms - MAC and PC
- Different Browsers - Internet Explorer 5, 5.5, 6, 7 and Netscape Navigator 6, 7,
Firefox 2
- Without images - a text equivalent is displayed
- With Javascript turned off - the content is available and makes sense
- Without Cascading Style Sheets - the content is available and makes sense
Clear Links Corporate Identity, Leaflets & Print
Clear Links provide services for disabled and dyslexic people in their in further
and higher education and in the workplace. The service also recruits and supports
disability support workers in a wide variety of roles.
SynergiDesign is experienced in designing websites to high standards of website
accessibility and has a long established working relationship with Marie Norris,
Clear Links director, who is a specialist in the field of disability.
Web site accessibility was key to the design and functionality of the Clear Links
website and the partnership has resulted in a highly successful, accessible website
project with full functionality that is clear cut with maximum ease of use.
Print design summary:
"SynergiDesign were originally recommended to me by another organisation. In
our business we are required to meet certain standards in relation to accessibility,
for example in relation to our web pages and literature. There are not many design
companies which have the expertise which we require, however Synergi do have
that knowledge and expertise. Synergi also took a lot of time to find out what
type of company we were, and developed a style for us which reflects us and what
we do - we offer a very professional service in a very friendly way - we think that
what we've got from Synergi in terms of our corporate identity demonstrates this
for us. People have commented positively about our website, and our colours and
logo. Another great thing about Synergi is that they are lovely people to deal
with; we value our relationship with them; they are responsive to our requirements
and are very customer orientated."
Marie Norris - Director, Clear Links
Accessible W3CAAA Web Design - More information
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SynergiDesign
won the contract and created the software (secure, interactive, web-standards compliant,
meeting the highest of web accessibility W3CAAA standards, web software) to undertake
this marketing activity and analyse its success.
"The level of activity generated by these campaigns met or exceeded our expectations."
John Rieger - The Law Society
The President of Nigeria required a sophisticated PowerPoint presentation to showcase his country’s resources to international investors such as Shell and Chevron at a conference attended by press officers from all over the globe.
SynergiDesign’s created a powerful, strongly branded PowerPoint presentation.
SynergiDesign
carried out the successful design of their property website and also provided a
range of high end glossy brochures:
"I am writing to congratulate you and your team for the first class sales brochure
that you have produced for our latest development in Belgravia"
Rigby & Rigby
Presentation
for an Automotive international trade show in Japan on behalf of the government
agencies we designed an impactful presentation pulling together content from a variety
of automotive manufacturers.
"Many thanks for your help on this project and turning it around within such a
short timescale. I was most impressed with your level of expertise and service and
will happily recommend you to other colleagues."
Ginny Truslove
Web Applications / Software Development
SynergiDesign
have created an innovative, versatile and highly functional website and CMS for
SO LONDON Publishing. The website and bespoke content management software are designed
to the highest .Net 2 and CSS programming standards which allow for online management
of the magazine including:
- magazine issue management
- articles and article ranking
- image management
- image auto optimisation and resizing
- complex banner advert management
Diamond Dealer Direct is a long-established diamond merchant and manufacturer
with a recently acquired retail outlet which now enables them to deal direct with
the public giving access to one of the UK’s largest stock of internationally recognised
certified diamonds from the top gemmology laboratories. A high end ecommerce shopping
website and content management system with a sophisticated and customised pricing
software system and also an extensive search engine campaign was developed for Diamond
Dealer Direct.
Web design summary:
- Web Design
- Ecommerce shopping cart
- Search Engine Optimisation
- PPC campaign
- Bespoke Content Management System
- Reporting System
- Order Management System
- Registration System