The Jodi Awards

2003

Winner: www.nmm.ac.uk-the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

The Jodi Mattes Access Award recognises museum, gallery and heritage websites that have emphasised principles of access for all in their design, navigation and content. The judges included representatives from MAGDA, mcg, MLA and RNIB.

Judging

The judges were keen to award websites which showed a commitment towards compliance with access standards. Judges felt that the NMM website (www.nmm.ac.uk ) clearly demonstrates this commitment. Features particularly welcomed include:

Good contrast between text and background.
Allowing users to change the size of the text with browser controls.
Style sheets to control screen appearance.
Meaningful’ links that make sense out of context.
Use of the ALT attribute to describe graphics.

The judges were also impressed with the ease of navigation around the NMM’s Collections Online system, which provides information about 7,000 objects in the collections.

In addition to compliance with access standards, the judges were also aware that a growing number of museums, galleries and heritage venues are developing innovative content aimed at groups with particular needs. The judges especially wanted to commend Tate for innovation in the presentation of content in its i-Map system ( www.tate.org.uk/imap ).

The judges felt that, as yet, innovative content is not being paired with standards compliance and that there is plenty of room for improvement. The judges hope that next year’s award might motivate organisations to produce compliant websites with innovative content. For this year, though, they wanted to make particular mention of museums, galleries and heritage sites which had made strides in the relatively new area of accessibility, where there are few existing examples of good practice. They congratulated all the sites nominated for their efforts in improving access to the wealth of information available in the sector.

The winner was announced at the RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind)'s Talking Images conference on 20th May 2003. In this, the European Year of Disabled People,

Criteria for the award were usability and content accessibility.
Technical compliance wasmeasured to level A of the Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines.
Websites from all countries were eligible, but must contain some navigation and content in English.

Judges included representatives from Leicester University, MAGDA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the mcg, RNIB and MLA.

Sites nominated

1. Australian Museum spiders site
http://www.amonline.net.au/spiders

2. Disability Museum
http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/

3. Hampshire Museums Service
http://www.hants.gov.uk/museums

4. London’s Transport Museum
http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/

5. Museophile
http://access.museophile.net/

6. My Brighton and Hove
http://http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/index.htm

7. The National Gallery, London
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

8. National Maritime Museum (*WINNER*)
http://www.nmm.ac.uk

9. Tate
http://www.tate.org.uk/imap (COMMENDED)

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