A BLIND Islander is asking organisations in Jersey to make sure that their online presence is accessible – otherwise they could miss out on business and fail to engage with an important audience.
Johannes Martinson said that people with disabilities tended to make especially loyal customers – but they would shift allegiances if a website was unnecessarily difficult to navigate.
Mr Martinson, who is a member of the Jersey Electoral Authority, so will be busy in the next few weeks overseeing next month’s election, said that some Jersey businesses had easily accessible websites; others, less so.
He said: “The main thing about a website for me is as soon as I click something and it does not work, I ask myself ‘do I really need to go through this?’ Usually, the answer is ‘no, I don’t, I’ll go to another website’.
“This is especially true when I am buying something: often, it is easy enough to select items for your basket, but when you get to the payment part, it does not work properly. For me, that says the business does not want my business.
“This is especially important for local businesses. I want to support them, but Amazon is a very good website for accessibility. I think some businesses might falsely think that it will cost a lot of money to improve their website but it does not have to be expensive.”
Mr Martinson spoke to the JEP after attending a workshop run by IT specialist Geraldine Cardwell, who supports organisations and web designers with making online content more accessible.
Held recently on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the free session showcased good and not-so-good local examples to illustrate how small changes can go a long way.
Common mistakes include not making downloadable PDF forms easily readable, clickable areas being too small, not having a ‘skip to content’ tab for people only using a keyboard, not captioning videos, using colours buttons without labels, and not having alternative text for images.
Ms Cardwell said: “My goal is to raise awareness among local businesses, organisations, and the wider community about the barriers people with disabilities still face online and in digital services.
“Improving accessibility is not just a technical exercise – it is about inclusion, independence, and ensuring everyone can participate fully in Island life.”
She added: “In recent months I have reviewed a number of local websites for accessibility, and so many of them are failing on the basics. These are issues that can be fixed, but only if organisations understand the impact they have on disabled islanders.”
