THE Salvation Army's international website – www.salvationarmy.org – has been shortlisted for an award in the sixth annual Christian New Media Awards, sponsored by UK broadcaster Premier Radio.
Premier launched the awards in 2007 to encourage and reward innovation and creativity in the Christian community. In particular, the awards look to commend those who seek to use new media to reach out to the wider world in an ever more sophisticated media landscape. The awards have grown in popularity and participation since they were launched and now attract entries from the widest possible range of churches, charities and individuals.
The Salvation Army's nomination is for Accessibility, a category which seeks to promote best practice in making website content available to all – regardless of any disabilities that website visitors may have.
Accessibility was a key factor in redesigning the website, which was relaunched in March 2012. The choice of colour avoids difficulty for people who are colour-blind. Text descriptions on images ensure that the site is usable by people with sight problems. Navigation is simple, but there is more than one way to access content throughout the site. People with mobility issues – who may have poor mouse control – are also considered, with careful use of white space between clickable items, and especially around weblinks. There is also the facility to move around the page using the keyboard instead of a mouse.
Web Manager David Giles explains: 'It's an honour to be shortlisted for an award, especially one so in keeping with The Salvation Army's mission to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination. This is testament to the hard work of the International Headquarters team from IT and the Communications Section that our relaunched website has been recognised in such a way.'
The Christian New Media Awards will take place at a formal dinner on 19 October 2012, held at the historic Skinners' Hall in London.
Report by the Communications Section
International Headquarters
