improving bt's web presence
DESCRIPTION
Dave Barrett's presentation at Browsealoud's accessibility event on 13 May 2010. Dave is BT's Senior Accessibility and Inclusion Manager.TRANSCRIPT
Improving BT’s web presence
www.bt.comwww.bt.com/inclusionwww.btplc.com/inclusion/btsign/
David Barrett
Senior Accessibility
and Inclusion
manager
Who am I?
Why be inclusive?
I have seen what technology can do for people with disabilities
If we can get the technology right it is a win win situation
The first step
Review our main websites and get an idea of their accessibility and usability
First step was crude but effective
Raise peoples awareness
The moment of truth
Need to persuade
Circulated original videos to senior managers and website owners
Built inclusion website as a micro-site so we could carry out an accessibility audit
Showed that sites can be built in an accessible format and the benefits of an independent accreditation
bt.com review
Budget
Commissioned expert resource
Defined order journeys
Feedback
Snowball effect
External forces:A lot of publicity about inaccessible
website and some high profiles cases (mainly overseas)DDA awareness campaign around what organisations
should be doing Internal forces:
Continual push from the inclusion team to improve accessibility of all new websites
Promoted simple tools that people could use to test their sites
Simple tools
Wave accessibility toolbar for Firefox www.wave.webaim.org
WAT Web Accessibility Toolbar www.wat-c.org
Colour contrast analyserApplication built in to WAT
Access to a screen readerwww.satoga.com
Plus………..
Simple tools
Just using the keyboard to Navigate the site Using view - Text size – Largest Using the mouse to hover over a
picture and looking for the alt tag Checking the links to make sure they do not
all say the same thing Click Here Asking some of the users in BT with access
technology how it worked for them
Embedded into BAU
In the mean time…. BSL
We were asked by some of our stakeholder groups what we did for BSL users
Apart from keeping the language simple and clear - the answer was very little
So we teamed up with ITV Signpost to see what we could do……………
BSL……. phase1
BSL phase1……. what we learnt
Who should do the Signing
New signs needed
Background to be changed
Supporting text altered
People wanted more information
BSL……. phase2
Developed Statement Of Requirements (SOR) from phase 1
In partnership with new supplier AC2, added additional items– Put the site map under
each page– Use flash not movie files
(easy to enlarge)
• Whilst offering useful information people want the site to go a step further:
• Reporting faults• Placing orders• Accessing their bills
More integration with the main site needed
BSL phase2….. learnings
BSL…….. the next phase
Audio option “Talking” website
Audio option “Talking” website
Simple
No cost to customers
Secure
Potential to work with all BT Sites
Audio option “Talking” website
• Reviewed various models but liked :Browsealoud
– Worked on our internal and external sites– Liked text highlighting and “tickertape”– Piloted on btplc.com first as a CSR activity
A work in progress
Any Questions