Improving BT's web presence
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The document discusses BT's efforts to enhance website accessibility and inclusion, led by David Barrett, the Senior Accessibility and Inclusion Manager. It highlights the importance of technology for people with disabilities and outlines steps taken to improve site usability, including accessibility audits, the development of a micro-site for inclusion, and the integration of tools for website testing. The document also covers the collaboration with ITV Signpost for British Sign Language (BSL) support and the introduction of audio options for a 'talking' website to further assist users.
Improving BT's web presence
- 1. Improving BT’s web presence www.bt.com www.bt.com/inclusion www.btplc.com/inclusion/btsign/
- 2. Who am I? David Barrett Senior Accessibility and Inclusion manager
- 3. 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
- 4. The first step Review our main websites and get an idea of their accessibility and usability First step was crude but effective
- 6. The moment of truth
- 7. 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
- 8. bt.com review Budget Commissioned expert resource Defined order journeys Feedback
- 9. 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
- 10. Simple tools Wave accessibility toolbar for Firefox www.wave.webaim.org WAT Web Accessibility Toolbar www.wat-c.org Colour contrast analyser Application built in to WAT Access to a screen reader www.satoga.com Plus ………..
- 11. 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
- 13. 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……………
- 14. BSL……. phase1
- 15. BSL phase1……. what we learnt Who should do the Signing New signs needed Background to be changed Supporting text altered People wanted more information
- 16. 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)
- 17. 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
- 18. BSL…….. the next phase
- 19. Audio option “Talking” website
- 20. Audio option “Talking” website Simple No cost to customers Secure Potential to work with all BT Sites
- 21. 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
- 22. A work in progress
- 23. Any Questions
Editor's Notes
- #3: David Barrett Senior accessibility and inclusion manager 35 plus years with BT The last 15 years dealing with accessibility
- #8: Showing people the whole video of how a screen reader uses the web and the barriers that they can face was enough – the sharing of a users story was very powerfull
- #9: Obtained budget to do a preliminary audit on bt.com Commissioned AbilityNet to test both the code and also the user experience Invited website owners to define the order journeys and observe the audit taking place Provided feedback to the owners
- #13: Senior managers and site owners involved , delivers better understanding of accessibility Accessibility part of procurement process Created a BT specification with AbilityNet for web builders to follow (ties back to W3C guidelines) Training with external agencies and AbilityNet
- #15: Research showed the deaf community wanted to learn more about Broadband Reviewed our broadband content and put it into a “stand-alone” version that could be signed Hosted a questionnaire to see what BSL users thought and what else they would like to see
- #16: Signers dress, native BSL users