How Shaw Trust made a difference to us

Suffolk Coastal District Council

As website managers, we are constantly bombarded with guidance about accessibility and best practice. Our problem was that we wanted to know for sure that the adjustments we wanted to make were actually going to help people who have disabilities to use our website.

Before we contacted Shaw Trust, it hadn’t been easy for us gaining a full understanding of how access technology works. And the barriers even simple things can be to users. The day we spent with the web accreditation testing team really brought home to all of us how important it is to make websites accessible. It has also helped us to understand what we can do better, and why. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending anyone concerned about their own websites and accessibility, to do the same.

Chris Doncaster Suffolk Coastal District Council

Dorset For You

The team at Dorset For You had made great efforts over a period of time to make our website more accessible. So, we were keen for a complete audit to be carried out. This would identify those areas that needed work and what barriers to accessibility still remained. We decided to approach Shaw Trust as we thought it was important that the website was tested by real people with a range of disabilities who use different technologies to access the web.

From start to finish, the experience with Shaw Trust has been extremely positive. They have been highly professional – and friendly and good fun to work with too. The day we spent in Wales meeting the team who did the testing was particularly useful and enjoyable. The report arrived on time and was written in an easy to follow style with plenty of screen grabs to illustrate issues encountered. Now the hard work begins!

Martin Bottomley Website Manager