As you may be aware, the Hungerford Web Design website was recently the first site to be awarded an iCare award for accessibility. We have been awarded the silver award based on our accessible design, content and standards development.
“A lot of hard work has gone into this site and it is indeed a deserving winner”
iCare is the brainchild of the Nice 2 All site owner who has an obvious passion and drive for accessibiliy. The iCare award is something and nothing. In my opinion, anything which increases the awareness of accessibility and web development standards is a great idea in my opinion. Whilst I haven’t seen anything similar, it probably does exist (do prove me wrong here though!), sadly, it isn’t well known either. This award would be of greater impact and importance if it was widely recocgnised (something I hope to help in some small part with this post).
So what does the award mean and why is it silver?
Copied verbatum from the original site:
The iCare Awards come in three levels, gold, silver and bronze. To qualify for any of these awards your site/blog will be evaluated against the following criteria:
All you need to do to earn iCare bronze is to ensure that the main page of your site/blog contains valid (X)HTML. The validity of your site/blog’s markup will be checked via the W3C Markup Validation Service. Meeting this criteria is not difficult but valid (X)HTML is essential to any further accessibility features.
To earn the iCare silver your site/blog needs to meet the criteria as mentioned for the bronze award PLUS your stylesheet(s) also needs to have valid markup. The validity of your CSS will be checked via the W3C CSS Validation Service.
To earn the iCare gold your site/blog needs to meet the criteria as mentioned for the bronze and silver award PLUS your CSS will be put through a further test which actually consists of two tests:
The fore- and background colors used in your CSS will be put through a color contrast test. This test will be done via the Juicy Studio CSS Analyser. This same validator will also be used to check that you have no fixed sized fonts anywhere in your CSS. To pass this final, double test, the validator must not return any warning or error icons whatsoever.
These criteria are really not very difficult to meet and they do indeed only cover the very basics of website accessibility. These criteria are however very important if you want your site/blog to have any measure of accessibility or even usability.
All sites/blogs that are evaluated will be notified of the result of the evaluation within 7 days from the date of application.
If you know your site/blog meets these standards, you have already done the hard work and the rest of the accessibility standards are within your grasp. Please come and claim your reward for getting this far. Come and get the recognition you deserve
What haven’t we done?
I’ve said it before and I really hope I don’t keep saying it….the blog is poor. Our site was developed with both standards and accessibility in mind. For every usability functionality there is an accessible alternative. Unfortunately the blog is a theme which we have not designed from scratch. I have made a number of changes to the theme but more importantly I need to make a large number of changes to the various modules(/plugins) we use in the theme. This means I need to spend a fair amount fo development time on it.
I’m really keen to get it done, unfortunately other things have taken priority recently both at home and at work. I will make the changes in the not too distant future.
Where would we like to be?
Gold of course! I would like us to be the best at anything we attempt to do, we are not there yet but we will be, at which point we will re-submit th site with a view to obtaining a Gold classification. Until then we are reliant on users with accessibility needs letting us know if something doesn’t work well enough for them. That feedback is both difficult to get but incredibly valuable to us so please do feel able to comment on it.
I would be really grateful to anyone who takes some time to take a look at the iCare awards and feed back on them, submit their site to them and advocate them where possible. I have no vested interest in the site or the awards, I just think it’s a great idea and one which should be promoted.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Wow, thanks for the write-up.
Website accessibility seems to be out of fashion these days, but it is something that will never disappear despite what its opponents have to say on the matter. In my opinion everyone should have access to all web sites. There are obvious exceptions e.g. I cannot read a Japanese site.
Winning an iCare award does not make a site accessible but it sure is a good start. The entire idea of accessibility will be kept alive by the actions of folks like you. I hope to see your site get that gold award soon.
On behalf of those who really need the accessibility features you have already built into your site, I thank you.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Wow, congratulations for the award! I may want to apply too and see what award my blog will get
I think not far away from bronze…
June 24th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Thank you so much and good luck with your site submission
June 24th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
There is no thanks required Sailor, I genuinely wish you the best of luck with the iCare awards. As I said, anything to increase awareness is an excellent thing.