Australian Access Awards
Categories
Corporate Website of the Year (Commercial)
This award is open to any Australian company that believes their website is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full company website or a microsite that focuses on a particular corporate initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Government Website of the Year
This award is open to any Australian Federal, state or local government department or entity with a .gov.au domain that believes their website is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full government website or a microsite that focuses on a particular government initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Educational Website of the Year
This award is open to any Australian educational school or institution with a .edu.au domain that believes their website is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full website or a microsite that focuses on a particular educational initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Not-for-profit Website of the Year
This award is open to any registered Australian not-for-profit organisation that believes their website is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full website or a microsite that focuses on a particular not-for-profit initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Corporate App of the Year (Commercial)
This award is open to any Australian company that believes their app is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full company app or an app that focuses on a particular corporate initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Government App of the Year
This award is open to any Australian Federal, state or local government department or entity domain that believes their app is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full government app or an app that focuses on a particular government initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Educational App of the Year
This award is open to any Australian educational school or institution that believes their app is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full app or an app that focuses on a particular educational initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Not-for-profit App of the Year
This award is open to any registered Australian not-for-profit organisation that believes their app is an example of accessibility best practice. It can be a full app or an app that focuses on a particular not-for-profit initiative. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Accessibility Initiative of the Year
This award is open to any Australian project that has endeavoured to improve accessibility in the lives of people with disability. This category is intentionally wide to provide an opportunity for projects such as initiatives, prototypes, research projects, online content and anything else that is making a difference in improving access to be considered for an award. Both self-nominations and independent nominations are welcome.
Accessibility Person of the Year, to be Inducted into our Hall of Fame.
In addition, all nominations are asked to consider an Accessibility Person of the Year. This is designed to acknowledge any individual that has worked particularly hard, and significantly contributed to championing digital access. All recommendations will be carefully considered.
The categories of Initiative of the Year and Person of the Year are based on a selection criterion similar to that used by the selection of Australian of the Year. The criteria considers the contribution to accessibility, in relation to the significance, leadership, contribution and achievement of the person or initiative being assessed.
Judging
Criteria and assessment
The Awards will be judged based on the guidelines found in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standard. The judging panel will then select sample web pages or app screens for assessment based on a sliding scale of 1-5 whereby 1 indicates a lack of compliance through to 5 indicating that all elements are accessible.
The judging criteria is as follows:
- Does the nominated website/app provide text alternatives for non-text content?
- Does the nominated website/app provide captions for video?
- Does the nominated website/app provide audio description for video?
- Is content on the nominated website/app presented in different ways, including to assistive technologies, without losing meaning?
- Does the nominated website/app make it easier for users to see and hear content?
- Is all functionality in the nominated website/app available from a keyboard?
- Does the nominated website/app give users enough time to read and use content?
- Does the nominated website/app remove elements that could cause seizures or physical reactions?
- Does the nominated website/app help users navigate and find content?
- Does the nominated website/app make it easier to use inputs other than keyboard?
- Does the nominated website/app make text readable and understandable?
- Does the nominated website/app make content appear and operate in predictable ways?
- Does the nominated website/app help users avoid and correct mistakes?
- Does the nominated website/app maximize compatibility with current and future user tools?
The judging panel consists of a mix of people with lived experience of disability and specialists in the digital access field. To see the panel and read their bios, go to the Judging Panel page.
Please note that all judging decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
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Conflict of Interest
Declaration
In order to preserve the integrity of the Awards judging process, strict rules have been put in place regarding conflicts of interest. Should a nomination be made from an organisation that has an affiliation with a judge or sponsor, processes have been established to ensure that that the individual(s) with a conflict are removed from the judging process. As such, we encourage anyone that wishes to submit a nomination to do so knowing that there will be no advantage or disadvantage present in the judging process.