Digital accessibility put front and centre for GAAD

Digital accessibility is now more important than ever and the fact that you are reading this story online is a testimony to how far the consumption of digital media has come in recent years. Last Thursday 19th May 2022 Guernsey joined in GAAD, the 11th Global Accessibility Awareness Day, being celebrated worldwide. The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access / inclusion with people with different disabilities – and that is what we were challenged to do locally.

The Guernsey Disability Alliance commissioned us to produce a number of videos to help illustrate the issues faced locally, as well as tips on how to improve the digital accessibility of your website / system from a company who has experience in addressing digital accessibility issues head on. We actually had all the footage already on file, as this was shot last year at the Digital Greenhouse, where the last forum and idea-sharing get together was hosted on the topic area. We dug the high definition out of our archive and began to produce the 13 videos that had been clipped from the 30 minutes of raw material we had to work with. The Alliance were keen on easy to watch, bitesize videos that were available to view on the popular social media channels and that is what they commissioned us to produce.

All of the video content we produced for them was branded to reflect the Alliance’s new brand and colour pallet. Obviously, and to ensure the widest accessibility possible, we produced the videos with burnt-in subtitles so the closed captions were always on screen and the user wasn’t required to toggle them on or off to view them. All the videos were optimised for Facebook & Twitter where they were shared in the lead up to, during and after the day itself. We took full control of their social media channels over those few days to ensure the greatest coverage possible. We also took the liberty of adding all videos to their already burgeoning archive of campaign and awareness raising videos to feature on their YouTube channel which will eventually go on to be embedded on their website.

From a quick check of the analytics earlier this week, one video had already accumulated over 560 views, and those were just views accumulated from one social media channel! If you want tips on how to change your website / app / system for the better, check out the resources available on their local association’s website here.