Accessible Museum Website Award launched

The Museums Computer Group (MCG) invites nominations for a new award for the most accessible museum website of the year - the first Jodi Mattes Access award. The winner will be announced at the RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind)'s Talking Images conference on 20th May 2003. In this, the European Year of Disabled People, the award should generate significant press coverage for the winner(s).

Criteria for the award will be usability and content accessibility. Technical compliance will be measured to level A of the Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines. If entries are sufficient in number, there will be two prizes for 'Best Large-scale Site' and 'Best Shoestring Project' . Websites from all countries are eligible, but must contain some navigation and content in English.

The winner will be invited to display the award logo on their website, linked to the MCG site explaining the criteria and background, and to the Museums and Galleries Disability Association (MAGDA)'s website. The MCG will arrange press coverage, including the Museums Journal, MCG newsletter and the 24Hour Museum.

Judges will include representatives from Leicester University, MAGDA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MCG, RNIB and Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.

Nominations should be made on the MCG website (below) where a form asks for the name and address of the nominated website, reason for nomination and name of nominator. Under reason for nomination, please explain why you find the site and its content particularly usable. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday 30th April 2003. Museums may nominate their own websites for the award, but in this case nominators should also refer to recommendations from users or evidence of evaluation. Queries on eligibility should be sent to jodi.mattes.award@emmlac.org.uk . (East Midlands Museums, Libraries and Archives Council are handling nominations on behalf of the MCG.)

Background:
The award is named in memory of Jodi Mattes (1973-2001). Jodi worked at the Royal National Institute of the Blind and the British Museum. Amongst many other things, Jodi worked 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.

Associated Link: Nominate websites here

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