Solving accessibility issues through smarter design

April, 2005

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) has placed a responsibility on many organisations to ensure that their e-learning materials are accessible to users with visual and mobility impairments. BYG’s research into on-screen accessibility has meant that we have already been able to provide fully ‘DDA compliant’ e-learning programmes to organisations like the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The innovative design of our learning materials allows visually impaired users to view our programmes without the need for special ‘modes’ or alternative routes for different users. This ensures the best possible learning experience for all users and also reduces production and maintenance costs.

Our learning materials are designed with a good background and text contrast, and all ‘must know’ information in graphics is also available elsewhere on the screen. We use properly structured HTML that can be read correctly by screen-reading software such as JAWS. Our courses are developed to be compatible with magnification, speech, voice recognition and Braille software programmes.

Mobility-impaired learners can control navigation and interaction through the keyboard as well as using standard pointing devices such as a mouse.

BYG is now assisting a number of its other clients to implement e-learning programmes that comply with the DDA. We are able to deliver accessible courses whilst not losing the benefits of interactivity - fundamental to the success of any piece of e-learning.

The centrepoint of our accessibility provision is our range of accessible templates. Our programmes are thoroughly tested with accessibility software packages that include:

  • ZoomText 7.06: A magnifier designed for MS Windows systems.

  • Supernova 5.2: Provides magnification, speech and Braille output.

  • JAWS 6.0: Screen-reading software which transcribes web pages for visually-impaired users.

  • Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0: Speech recognition software

BYG uses the latest Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines from www.w3c.org, which are widely regarded as the standard for organisations that are committed to DDA compliancy.

For further information please contact
BYG Systems Limited
Telephone: 0115 9252221
email: info@bygsystems.com

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