Great design and full inclusion: getting up to speed on accessibility

Sightsavers recently hosted a lunchtime talk by accessibility consultant Joshua Marshall, who was the accessibility lead on the UK government’s multi-award-winning GOV.UK website.

Joshua presented to Sightsavers staff his views on accessibility, as well as revealing some of what he had learned during his time working in digital accessibility. During his talk, Joshua shared a quote from web designer Brad Frost: “It’s not about what you do, it’s about what you enable other people to do.”

This is what we are trying to achieve at Sightsavers. One of our aims is to make sure everything we produce is accessible to all our staff and supporters, and this includes our digital content: for example, ensuring that all our online images have alternative text that can be picked up by those using screenreaders, and that the language we use in our communications can be understood easily by everyone.

“Everyone is responsible for accessibility”

Joshua also stressed that “accessible design is good design”. It’s why we have a team, of which I’m part, that is responsible for testing the accessibility of our systems and content.

“Accessible communities like to share,” Joshua told us. We are sharing the journey of Sightsavers as it becomes more accessible through blog posts such as this one, and through material such as our annual inclusion report, so that others can benefit from our experiences.

Kate Bennell is the organisational inclusion coordinator at Sightsavers UK. Severely sight impaired herself, she coordinates the Social Inclusion Working Group and champions accessibility.
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