Mediawatch

The website www.journalism.co.uk has published a series of articles looking at the accessibility of eight national newspaper websites. So who scoops the honours when it comes to accessibility?

Visually-impaired news junkies tested each site for accessibility in terms of finding and reading news stories, viewing video clips and posting on blogs.
A person with some vision might be drawn to the top story on The Sun's site because of its font and colour. But somebody relying on screenreading software for audio feedback could find the same site awkward because of the number of links and sidebars.

But a website will never be 100  per cent accessible to everyone. And, while one blind screenreader-user can find a site accessible, another might not. This could be because of the sophistication of the software they use or their ability to use it properly.

One tester who uses screen magnification software praised The Telegraph for its multimedia content which, he said, made the news more accessible. But he had some gripes about reading the blogs, because the pages were too long and the print font too small.

The first link a blind user of the Daily Mail's site will see provides the option to skip over links for adverts and to other sections of the paper. When activated, the cursor is supposed to land at the top of the news  section. It might not always work, but it's a good idea.

The Daily Express has no such option and can appear cluttered. A lot of the links, according to the screenreader-user who tested the site, are labelled badly.
It's easy enough to pinpoint stories on Times Online, but after clicking the link to the article, it can be tricky to find the beginning of the text.

People with some sight might also find it easier to navigate and read content on The Sun's website, particularly because of the layout and the size of the text.
The Daily Mirror's site was OK to browse, but could do with sprucing up, while The Independent has a tool to resize fonts, which the testers found useful.

Richard Warren, technical director at the website auditors USERITE, says: "In an ideal world, the internet versions of newspapers would not try to mimic their paper-based editions, but would, instead, maximise the potential of internet technology to deliver the news in an easy-to-follow, well-organised and interesting format. The golden rule is keep it simple."