RCVS online nominated for Visionary Design Award

The new RCVS online, which was launched in October 2004, has been nominated for a Visionary Design Award by the National Library for the Blind in recognition of achieving accessible web design.

The Visionary Design Awards are part of an ongoing campaign by the National Library for the Blind (NLB) to encourage website publishers and designers to consider access technology when they are designing their sites. The challenge is to create sites which are not only visually attractive and informative, but comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) by being accessible to visually impaired people.

The NLB estimates that less than a third of websites are currently accessible to visually impaired people who use technologies such as magnification, text to speech, and refreshable Braille in order to access web-based services. However, the RCVS has worked closely over the last few months with its website designers, Poptel Technology, in order to meet the requirements of the new DDA.

RCVS online has been nominated in the News and Information category alongside the websites of the British Paralympic Association, Transport and General Workers Union, Motability, and Law Society. The winner of this and the other seven categories will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in London on 24 November 2004.

In addition to this nomination, the new RCVS online has also received much positive feedback from existing users and new visitors to the site. Please visit our feedback page and tell us what you think.