techblog 

Acronyms (and abbreviations for that matter) within a website, according to the Accessibility Guidelines, have to be explained at least once (usually at the first occurrence, and usually via a title, long description, alt or other tool-tip). This is good practice and very helpful. Ironic then, that the three organisation’s websites that contribute to Euroaccessibility.org don’t actually do this. Take Ability Net, whose homepage statement reads

‘AbilityNet helps disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their ICT.’

Well of course they do. But what is an ICT? It’s not explained on their homepage.

It’s not under ‘About us’ either. Search the site and you get a news link to “AbilityNet joins ICT Consortium to support the voluntary and community sector”. So will the article tell you what an ICT is? No, it won’t. But it does mention (and link to) the ‘ICT Consortium’ site. Surely that will tell you? Going to the ICT Organisation site states, heplfully, ‘ICT Hub: Delivering ICT Resources for the Voluntary and Community Sector’. Followed by the homepage text which reads ‘Welcome! It’s been a busy time at the ICT Hub. Staff have been in post since January and amongst other things are organising a series of seminars and conferences around the country.’. No luck so far. But they do have an About page - at last the place where ICT is defined? On the ICT’s own site ‘About Us’ page?

But you’d be wrong. In fact nowhere in the ICT site is ‘ICT’ actually defined. Even though it’s mentioned in practically every sentence, link or heading.

Unfortunately the same goes for the RNIB and RNID sites. Whilst I’m aware of what they stand for, others might not. In fact, RNID’s acronym does not stand for their full name. At least on these sites, if you dig deep enough (RNID>Home>About Us>History, mid way down) you can find it.

Maybe AbilityNet, RNIB and RNID are all relying on Google to explain themselves?