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Creative Accessibility and Usability is a core philosophy
Reading Room has had the development of creative accessibility and usable web systems at its core since its formation in November 1996. Our skills and expertise in this area have been confirmed by the Disability Rights Commission's (DRC) appointment of Reading Room as their web development partner. Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it unlawful for a service provider to treat disabled people less favourably for a reason related to their disability.
Meeting the guidelines
Reading Room employs its own accessibility experts who can carry out a comprehensive audit of sites to identify which key areas need to be addressed. Throughout the design and development of a website project, our experts ensure that design and functionality continue to comply with accessibility and usability guidelines.
The guidelines that we follow will vary according to individual client requirements; these guidelines include W3C, RNIB, Bobby, eGIF, NOF and Dublin Core standards. Recent examples where we have applied these guidelines include: the DRC, Shelter, Cancer Research UK, The People's Network, Resource, The British Library and The Reading Maze.
Accessibility and creativity - mutually exclusive?
Finally, one commonly-held myth is that "accessible" also means "boring". In fact, this reflects a deep misunderstanding amongst some agencies. Guidelines, should enhance a site, not inhibit it.
Our view is that it is important to consider all users: those with disabilities as well as those without. This means that interactive elements such as games should still be considered and technologies such as Flash are becoming more and more accessible. As an example, we created a game for the DRC that gave people the choice of using Flash or HTML, or choosing how they want to control the interactivity, see http://www.drc.org.uk/newsroom/shopofhorrors.asp.
Ultimately, by thinking about accessibility up front, we are able to provide a multitude of options to deliver a truly creative offering to users. In a competitive market we believe creativity is both required and expected in order to make a site accessible without losing any of its appeal.
To speak to one of our accessibility experts or to find out about our accessibility audits please call us on 020 7025 1800 or click here for more information.
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