The client

The British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society is a registered charity dedicated to fighting blindness and finding a treatment or cure for the hereditary eye disease retinitis pigmentosa.

The website

Thanks to a donation, the society was able to update its web presence and develop a modern, functional and more accessible site for its thousands of blind and visually-impaired users, the public and professionals.

The new website is an important tool, supporting the society’s research and services. Key to its accessibility was making it compatible with screen reading software – in effect, creating a “talking” website which would “speak” website page text and information to users.

The solution

At its heart, the new site’s e-Genius Content Management System allows quick and easy updates of information and news. This can now all be done in-house by the society’s own staff – saving time and precious funds for the charity.
The site was coded to a minimum of Priority 2 of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Accessibility Guidelines. And was also designed – and tested – to work with Jaws, Zoom Text and Thunder screen reading software.

Users also have the facility to change text size, colour background and contrast to make the information easier to read.

The site also includes a high quality research section, a members’ area, a forum, branch contacts, RSS news feed service.

The verdict

"The site has been extremely well received and statistics show a very healthy usage. Being able to maintain the content ourselves has already proven very valuable, enabling us to launch new campaigns effectively. Our new, modern look has really helped me raise the profile of the organisation."
David Head, BRPS Chief Executive