Abstracts: September 19th, 2007

This DVD from the Society for IT Management is designed to promote better accessibility to websites. Some eight million people in the UK are thought to suffer some form of disability causing difficulties in using a standard screen, keyboard and mouse.

Although there are clear benefits from widening the audience for an organisation’s website, by making sure it is accessible to all, some 80-90% of all websites are not currently designed to be so. The DVD’s messages, using non-technical language, are aimed firmly at senior managers, in the belief that poor corporate commitment to website accessibility is due to low awareness of the issue among these decision-makers and budget-holders. It is hoped that the messages contained in the DVD will help web managers, who are themselves fully aware of accessibility issues, to persuade their bosses that they should invest the necessary resources in making their website accessible.

The DVD includes some demonstrations of how an accessible website functions, and some case studies showing how organisations like Legal & General have benefited from making their website accessible.

A trailer for the DVD can be seen at http://www.socitm.gov.uk/socitm/Library/A+world+denied.htm.

The cost is 50 pounds.