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Web Accessibility Awards

Jodi Mattes Award

National Maritime Museum wins award for most accessible museum website of the year – www.nmm.ac.uk

The National Maritime Museum was presented today with the Jodi Mattes Access Award for the most accessible museum website of the year 2003, which is also the European Year of Disabled People.  The Award for usability and content accessibility was made by the Museum Computer Group, the UK’s national forum for museum, gallery, archive and related professionals who work with computers, new technologies and new media.   

The National Maritime Museum’s website was re-launched in October 2002, with design and technical build by BoxUK, and provides on-line access to over 7000 items relating to seafaring, navigation, astronomy and time measurement.   A clear layout, using text alternatives for non-text elements, and a low-graphics version of the site are used to help achieve high standards of accessibility for all. 

Roy Clare, Director of the National Maritime Museum said: ‘The National Maritime Museum, with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, aims to illustrate the importance of the sea, ships, time and the stars, and their relationship to people. We hold the world’s largest collections in these subject areas and we are striving to make the objects and research materials available to learners and users across the community at home and abroad. Our website plays a vital role in this process, with many thousands of items already accessible and more being added continually. These on-line resources, which cater for all ages, tastes and interests, are being used by millions of people each year. We are absolutely delighted that our efforts to provide a high quality service have been recognised in this award.’ 

Aileen O’Riordan, Online Projects Manager said: ‘The re-launch of the website in 2002 gave the Museum a great opportunity to address the needs of all its audiences and to rethink the way that it delivers content to them. Our work towards greater web accessibility is an on-going process and this year developments include an improved low-graphics version and the addition of standard keyboard shortcuts for ‘Collections Online’. We are delighted that this award has recognized our commitment to providing greater access to the Museum’s rich and varied collections.’ 

‘Collections Online’ provides public access to the on-going project of cataloguing and digitising the National Maritime Museum’s collections, including oil paintings, globes, sundials, quadrants, prints and drawings, timekeepers, map and charts and ceramics.  This ever-growing resource currently provides access to over 4500 objects and 6500 images from the edged weapon, jewellery, ceramics, firearm and commemorative medal and coin collections.  You can visit ‘Collections Online’ at www.nmm.ac.uk/collections.

Other nominations for the Jodi Mattes Access Award included London’s Transport Museum, the National Gallery and Tate. Judges included representatives from Leicester University, MAGDA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MCG, RNIB and Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. 

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Notes to Editors

1. The National Maritime Museum - the largest and most important museum of its kind in the world - is housed in impressively modernized historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. It incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, (home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian Line) and 17th-century Queen’s House (England's first classical building and a rare surviving example of the work of Inigo Jones). Further information available at www.nmm.ac.uk.

2. The Jodi Mattes Access Award is named in memory of Jodi Mattes (1973-2001). Jodi worked at the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the British Museum.  One of her greatest achievements was to ensure that the British Museum's COMPASS website was accessible to all. She developed a text-only version of COMPASS, organised testing of the system by blind and partially sighted users, worked with the system developers on changes informed by the testing process and specified visitor desks accessible to wheelchair users. She also worked on accessible text descriptions, which has fed into the development of content on children's COMPASS. Jodi's work has inspired other museums and galleries to develop accessible websites.

3. Established in 1998, Box UK is an Internet Consultancy that provides expertise in both creative and technical aspects of the Internet.  Clients include blue chip giants like Chubb and the band, UB40.  Box UK is especially well known for implementing its high-level content management systems.  Its expertise in providing solutions for handling high volumes of data makes Box UK particularly well suited digital partner for a museum.

 
Visionary Design Award – RNLB & sponsored by Barclays

The winners were chosen on the basis of a high level of accessibility for all forms of access technology including screen magnification through software or browser settings, audio screen readers and refreshable Braille output. Winners were also selected based on the experience that a visually impaired user may have confronting the site for the first time and the value of the information available on the site.

NLB estimates that less than a third of websites are accessible to visually impaired people, making the winners of these Awards truly revolutionary in what they have achieved. The 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 such as magnification, text to speech and refreshable Braille when they are designing their sites.