The biennial Jodi Mattes Accessibility Awards for website accessibility in museums, libraries and archives were announced this week, coinciding with the publication by MLA of a new national report assessing accessibility standards across the sector.
The winners of this year's awards are:
Excellence Award 2005 - www.webwords.org, Library and Information Services, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. This website provides audio extracts of some 500 audio books, allowing visually impaired people - and every user - to choose their preferred narrator. The judges said: "It allows users glimpses into a book, much like browsing printed books does. Web words has the enormous advantage that it can be used by other libraries."
Award for Excellence with Low Budgets 2005 - www.pewsey-heritage-centre.org.uk, Wiltshire County Council Museums Service. A carefully designed website of a volunteer-run museum with a £1,000 annual budget, which meets WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Level AA guidelines. The enthusiastic panel of judges said: "It is an outstanding example of what can be achieved through sheer commitment by small museums."
Other commended websites:
- www.milestones-museum.com, Hampshire County Council (commended for innovation on a low budget). The first local authority website, and one of less than a handful of museum websites, to provide video clips with BSL (British Sign Language) and to allow BSL users to absorb the wealth of information available on the website.
- www.revealweb.org.uk (commended for widening access to information). The Revealweb library catalogue, a voluntary sector initiative, brings together over 100,000 materials for the first time in accessible formats. It can be used by the public and library staff alike, and makes finding out about reading materials considerably easier for visually impaired people.
- www.imagine.org.uk, Tyne and Wear Museums (commended for technical excellence). A website of a large museum, which demonstrates that visually attractive websites can meet exacting web accessibility standards. It is one in approximately 300 websites in the sector which meets WAI guidelines Level AAA.
The awards were presented at a ceremony in London on Tuesday, at which MLA also launched a new report revealing that the sector's compliance with web accessibility standards is above the national average. The level of compliance with the basic accessibility guidelines, WAI Level A, is over twice that found by the Disability Rights Commission in an audit undertaken last year.
The report, produced by City University, is based on an audit of a representative sample of 300 museum, library and archive websites in England. Amongst its key findings are:
- 42% of the home pages of the museum, library and archive websites meet basic WAI guidelines (Level A). This compares to the national average of 19% of websites across the country that meet this standard as found in the 2004 Disability Rights Commission audit.
- approximately 3% of museum, library and archive websites meet Level AA guidelines when assessed by automated testing tools ? the standard required for public sector websites by e-government policies. (This is twice the percentage of websites meeting the standard as found in the 2004 Disability Rights Commission audit.)
- the 11 most common problem types accounted for 68% of all instances of problems encountered, suggesting that it is relatively easy to improve the accessibility of websites.
- a user panel of blind, partially sighted and dyslexic people could successfully complete only 75.6% of the basic tasks they were asked to undertake on the websites ? such as looking at access information. The panel gave the websites a mean rating of 3.8 on a scale of 1 (very difficult) and 7 (very easy) when asked to rate the ease of use of the websites.
- 22% of problems experienced by the user panel were not identified by automated testing of the Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG1) checkpoints. This makes a compelling case for user involvement in web accessibility testing.
Presenting the awards and the new report, Chris Batt, MLA Chief Executive, said: "Our sector is doing relatively well in developing innovative, accessible websites. Across the board, museums, libraries and archives are above the national average - and the winners of this year's Jodi Mattes awards are outstanding examples of what can be achieved. But there's still much to be done. Web accessibility is not an optional extra: it is an essential element of effective online communications. I hope that web managers throughout our sector will implement the recommendations outlined in this new report."
Professor Helen Petrie of City University, who produced the report, said "The results of our audit are particularly interesting because they clearly show a sector that is paying a lot of attention to accessibility.
"The audit has also highlighted the importance of involving users in the web development and evaluation process ? the group of websites that achieved the highest technical conformance to the guidelines (archives) was not the group that was easiest for disabled people to use, either in terms of the success rate of completing tasks or in their ratings of the ease of use and feeling of being ?lost? on a site. Much more work is needed to understand the relationship between technical accessibility, as measured by the conformance to the guidelines and how to create a good user experience for disabled users."
The report was welcomed by Michael Burton, Commissioner for the Disability Rights Commission, who said: "I congratulate MLA on this initiative. Museums, libraries and archives are the custodians of invaluable material which enriches the lives of British citizens. However, the nature of this material means that, historically, much of it has been inaccessible to many people with impairments.
"Growing public awareness of mobility issues has led to greatly improved physical access to museums, libraries and archives over the years, but it is equally important to address the barriers confronting people with sensory and cognitive impairments. Such institutions are investing heavily in providing 'customers' with electronic access to the content in their charge. The opportunity to ensure that people with impairments derive full benefit from this investment will be squandered if it is not identified as a key objective throughout planning and implementation.
"MLA's report has corroborated this fact, and the measures being taken by the MLA to improve awareness and practice are timely and very welcome."
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Quotes from award winners:
www.pewsey-heritage-centre.org.uk www.milestones-museum.com "We're delighted that the Milestones museum website has been commended in the Jodi Mattes awards for its contribution to raising the level of accessibility, and that Hampshire County Council has led the way in providing British Sign Language content on the internet for deaf people." www.revealweb.org.uk www.imagine.org.uk "We are particularly delighted to be commended for the Technical excellence of the IMAGINE website and this reflects the ongoing commitment of TWM to deliver access for all." # # # Notes to Editors: For press enquiries contact Fiona Cameron, MLA Media and Events Manager at fiona.cameron@mla.gov.uk, 020 7273 1459. About the report Accessibility of museum, library and archive websites: the MLA audit is available to download from http://www.mla.gov.uk/information/publications/00pubs.asp. It is based on a representative sample of 300 museum, library and archive websites in England and a comparison of 25 international museum websites. The policy context for the audit was set by the Disability Discrimination Act, which covers websites, and the e-government 2005 policy which requires that public sector websites meet specified web accessibility guidelines. The methodology developed by City University involved the automated testing for compliance to the WCAG1 checkpoints of the home pages of all websites with WebXM?, an accessibility checking tool developed by the Watchfire Corporation. In addition, in-depth automated testing of the complete site and user testing of a sample of 25 websites was undertaken. The Jodi Mattes Awards are co-ordinated by MLA in partnership with the Department of Museums Studies of the University of Leicester and the Museums Computer Group. City University organised user testing and the automated testing of the home pages of short listed websites. The Awards and Commendations were given by a Panel of Judges, three of whom have personal experience of disability. The Awards are offered in memory of Jodi Mattes, who worked at the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the British Museum and pioneered website accessibility in the sector. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is the national development agency for museums, libraries and archives, advising the government on policy and priorities for the sector. MLA's roles are to provide strategic leadership, to act as a powerful advocate, to develop capacity and to promote innovation and change. Museums, libraries and archives connect people to knowledge and information, creativity and inspiration. MLA is leading the drive to unlock this wealth for all. http://www.mla.gov.uk City University, London, plays a distinctive role at the heart of business and the professions and in our relationships with employers and government. Our courses for both undergraduates and postgraduates are designed to help students succeed in the workplace. Over the past one hundred years we have gained a worldwide reputation for teaching and research - and we are committed to continuous innovation and improvement of our activities. Further information can be found on our website www.city.ac.uk
Mike Asbury, Manager of Pewsey Vale Heritage Centre said: ?We are absolutely delighted. It has been a real team effort and this award is a tribute to all our volunteers.?
Yinnon Ezra, Director of Recreation and Heritage, Hampshire County Council said:
Deborah Ryan, Revealweb Manager said: "We are delighted that our website has received a "Commendation for Excellence". By working together the voluntary, public and private sectors have created a system to help visually impaired people continue reading."
Iain Watson, assistant director for Tyne & Wear Museums, said: "Providing museums that are exciting and accessible to everyone is central to Tyne & Wear Museums' (TWM) philosophy and it is widely recognised that TWM is setting the standard. IMAGINE was an ideal opportunity to make TWM collections accessible to even more people.
