24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Gateway to Over 3,000 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions
Skip to navigation
Jodi Accessibility Awards- Nominations Deadline Approaching
By 24 Hour Museum Staff
31/01/2006
Image: shows a logo with the word simulacra
Simulacra are prominent sponsors this year of the Jodi awards.
Web accessibility is much more than just a technical challenge, say cultural web experts involved in the 2006 Jodi Awards. "It's not just a technical aspect of web publishing, of interest only to experts," said Matthew Cock, new media content manager at the British Museum, who is part of the steering committee for the 2006 award. Matthew was speaking as the February 24 deadline for nominations approaches.
"It's also about making content truly, easily, accessible for people of all abilities, liguistically, in terms of usability, and so on. We're also interested in sites that take on challenges with new audiences not often catered for, like, for instance, site users with learning difficulties."
Matthew is keen to get the message across that the award judges recognise the constraints that many museums and galleries work under. "There are always limitations: content management systems specified three or four years ago may not allow triple AAA level access compliance, but we're looking to reward those who make a sincere effort."
The winners, selected by a panel of judges with wide experience of the cultural new media sector, are set to be announced at the British Museum in London on April 5 2006.
For the first time the awards - developed and sustained by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the 24 Hour Museum and the British Museum - have been extended to welcome entries from Wales in partnership with Cymal (Museums, Libraries and Archives Wales).
"MLA’s report Accessibility of museum, library and archive websites: the MLA audit highlighted the need to keep improving web accessibility in the sector," explained Marcus Weisen, health and disability adviser at MLA.
"The Jodi Awards promote high technical web accessibility standards and this year the judges are also keen to celebrate sites that use practical and imaginative ways of making cultural resources accessible to disabled people."
Image: Shows a photo of the interior of the Great Court at the British Museum.
The 2006 Jodi Awards will be presented at the British Museum in spring 2006. © 24 Hour Museum.
Formerly known as the Jodi Mattes Web Accessibility Awards, the Jodi Awards were launched in 2003, European Year of Disabled People.
They were created and named in honour of Jodi Mattes (1973-2001) who as part of the team that built the British Museum's COMPASS website worked to ensure it was as accessible as possible.
She later worked for the Royal National Institute for the Blind and when she died aged just 28 some of her former colleagues sought to establish a lasting memorial to her work.
With support from MLA, the Museums Computer Group (MCG) and the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, the awards were created to recognise websites that demonstrate commitment to meeting web accessibility standards.
"The museum sector has always done its best to fulfil its public sector remit and cater for as wide an audience as possible," explained Jon Pratty, editor of the 24 Hour Museum. "The Jodi Awards will help keep that commitment alive."
MLA Chief Exective Chris Batt presenting the 2005 Jodi Mattes Excellence Award to Andrew Lewis of the Web Words project. Courtesy Duncan Phillips Photography.
Nominated sites are examined by an experienced panel of judges, which in 2006 will consist of Marcus Weisen; Nina Baptiste, Access and Audience Development Manager at Yorkshire Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; Ross Parry, lecturer in Museums and New Media at the University of Leicester and Rebecca McGinnis, access programme Manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Each nominated site is tested by disability experts and disabled users.
Previous winners include the National Maritime Museum (2003), Pewsey Heritage Centre (Excellence with a Low Budget, 2005) and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s Library and Information Service for Web Words, which allows users to listen to audio extracts of books (Excellence Award, 2005).
The 2006 awards are sponsored by new media consultancy Simulacra and led by an organising committee of Marcus Wiesen, 24 Hour Museum Editor Jon Pratty and British Museum new Media Content Manager Matthew Cock.
Matthew explained that the overarching objective of the award is to "keep accessibility at the forefront of the sector's consciousness when creating or commissioning websites and their content."
Full information on how to apply is available on the MLA website where nomination forms and the organising committee’s three-year plan can also be downloaded.
The Jodi Awards 2006 are supported by Simulacra
British Museum
The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG, England
T: +44 (0)20 7323 8299
Open: Museum opening hours:
Saturday - Wednesday 10.00-17.30
Thursday - Friday 10.00-20.30
Great Court Opening Hours:
Sunday - Wednesday 09.00-18.00
Thursday - Saturday 09.00-23.00
Reading Room Opening Hours:
Saturday - Wednesday, Friday - 10.00-17.30
Thursday 10.00-20.30
Closed: Closed 1 January, Good Friday and 24-26 December every year.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF, England
T: 020 8858 4422
Open: Daily, 10.00-17.00
Last admission is 30 minutes before closing.
From 3 May–31 August 2008, the Royal Observatory courtyard will remain open until 8pm.
Closed: All three sites close early on 31 December and open late on 1 January and on the occasion of the London Marathon each year.
Pewsey Heritage Centre
Whatleys Old Foundry, High Street, Pewsey, SN9 5AF, Wiltshire, England
Open: 5 May-31 September
Mon-Fri 1000-1330 & 1430-1600
Sat 1000-1200
Closed Bank holidays
Related Articles
The UK's Museums Mark Slavery Remembrance Day - August 23 2008
£3 Million To Be Invested In New Museum Research Projects
Summer 2008 Holiday Ideas At UK Heritage Sites And Museums
British Museum Takes Initiative With Children's BSL Web Project
Hadrian - Empire And Conflict At The British Museum
News In Brief - Week Ending July 2008
Love in a Cold Climate - World Gardens in London
E-news registration
E-mail story to a friend
Tell us what you think
Anson Engine Museum Displays The Award Winning JCB Dieselmax
News In Brief - Museums, Galleries And Heritage News
Mountain Rescue Gear Moves Star Mummy To Leeds' New Museum
Holocaust Survivors Help Imperial War Museum Launch New Holocaust Art Exhibition
Museums Libraries And Archives Get Cultural Olympiad Off To Flyer
Volunteers Looking For Stone Circle Uncover Roman Fort In Cumbria
New Darwin Centre Set To Welcome 2,500 Visitors Per Day
County Durham Launches Peace And Tranquility Week
Disability And Deaf Arts Get A Boost At 2008 DaDaFest International
3,500 Properties Open Doors To Public For Heritage Open Days 2008
British Library Acquires Dering Roll - A Who's Who Of Medieval Arms
The Rolling Stones Tongue And Lips Logo Acquired By The V&A
Nominations Open For Art Fund Prize For Museums And Galleries 2009
Belfast's Ulster Museum On Track For Dramatic New Rooftop Gallery
Brighton Art Gallery Stunned As US Artist Broken Crow Is Deported
Treasures Of National Media Museum To Be Posted On Flickr
Missing Brontë Letter Returns To The Brontë Museum In Haworth
Danish Artists Create Life-Size Walking House For Wysing Arts Centre Near Cambridge
Search this site
Home Page
News Page
Exhibition Page
What's On
Trails Page
Website of the Week
Letters Page
Welsh Home
Graphical Version
Copyright © 24 Hour Museum
Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.