9 March 2006

A website set up by London's local governmental agencies has been recognised for its drive to be as accessible to the visually impaired as it is to anyone else.

Government website Your London has been presented with a Visionary Design Award by the National Library for the Blind (NLB), in recognition of its efforts to bring its services to the visually impaired through methods such as magnification and text-to-speech facilities.

The site, which was set up by 32 London borough councils in conjunction with other agencies such as the NHS and Transport for London, was started with the intention of providing everyone in the capital with the information they need to know about their city.

The portal also complies with the scheme aiming to promote and enable a higher degree of usability for people with disabilities - the Web Accessibility Initiative - of which the guidelines are widely regarded as the industry standard.

The NLB bestows the Visionary Design Awards as part of its drive to encourage website publishers and designers to consider access technology, in an effort to rectify the problem that it deems only one in three sites adequately accessible to the visually impaired.

© Adfero Ltd

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