The Jodi Awards

2004-5

The winners of this year's awards are:

Excellence Award 2005 - www.webwords.org,
Library and Information Services, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead.

This website provides audio extracts of some 500 audio books, allowing visually impaired people – and every user - to choose their preferred narrator. The judges said: “It allows users glimpses into a book, much like browsing printed books does. Web words has the enormous advantage that it can be used by other libraries.”

Award for Excellence with Low Budgets 2005 - www.pewsey-heritage-centre.org.uk,
Wiltshire County Council Museums Service.

A carefully designed website of a volunteer-run museum with a £1,000 annual budget, which meets WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Level AA guidelines. The enthusiastic panel of judges said: “It is an outstanding example of what can be achieved through sheer commitment by small museums.”

Other commended websites:

www.milestones-museum.com,
Hampshire County Council (commended for innovation on a low budget).

The first local authority website, and one of less than a handful of museum websites, to provide video clips with BSL (British Sign Language) and to allow BSL users to absorb the wealth of information available on the website.

www.revealweb.org.uk (commended for widening access to information).

The Revealweb library catalogue, a voluntary sector initiative, brings together over 100,000 materials for the first time in accessible formats. It can be used by the public and library staff alike, and makes finding out about reading materials considerably easier for visually impaired people.

www.imagine.org.uk, Tyne and Wear Museums (commended for technical excellence).

A website of a large museum, which demonstrates that visually attractive websites can meet exacting web accessibility standards. It is one in approximately 300 websites in the sector which meets WAI guidelines Level AAA.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in London at which MLA also launched a report revealing that the sector’s compliance with web accessibility standards is above the national average. The level of compliance with the basic accessibility guidelines, WAI Level A, is over twice that found by the Disability Rights Commission in an audit undertaken last year.

More details on the MLA Accessibility website.

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