Developing a responsive approach for Scope.

Scope is one of the largest providers of disability support in Victoria operating in 99 service locations. It is also one of the largest not-for-profit organisations in Australia. Prior to 2001, the organisation was known as the Spastic Society of Victoria.

Scope offers a wide range of services including therapy, psychology, communication aids, mobility aids, housing, education, training, home and respite care. They also provide day, lifestyle and employment services.

Scope’s mission is to enable each person they support to live as an empowered and equal citizen. They help to identify opportunities for people to:

• Make decisions about their own life
• Get the right job, not just any job
• Choose where and who they live with
• Actively participate in their community of choice
• Live out their equal rights

Scope recognised that it was the right time to refresh their brand. They wanted to reflect their commitment to support people living with a disability as they move through the different phases in their life.

At the same time, changes to funding under the National Disability Scheme (NDIS) called for Scope to revise their approach and become NDIS ready.

With participants now having greater control over their funding, Scope wanted to ensure these people could access all the information they needed, particularly on services and funding that is available to them. Our aim was to ensure this information was easy to find and understand.

There are four key areas to this project we want to highlight:

• Understanding the audience
• Design
• Web Accessibility
• User testing

Understanding the audience.

The persona analysis played a crucial role in providing a foundation for the project. Persona analysis is a type of research that identifies the user groups of a website and their common goals and tasks.

The information gleaned from a persona analysis informs the design, content and development of the site. It ensures all elements work together and speak to the appropriate users.

In Scope’s case, this research uncovered the need for information to be categorised according to age group. Content could be filtered through to improve the experience for users in the various age categories. It would also help Scope to speak directly to the user.

Designing for unique user groups.

The age categories became a focus in the design of the website. As soon as you arrive at the homepage, you can filter the information by selecting which age group you belong to.

The content is then filtered so you receive the information that is relevant to you. People don’t need to sort through pages and pages of content to find what is relevant to them.

The design of the website incorporates the look and feel of the new Scope brand. In particular the ‘stone pathway’ represents a person’s life path. The ‘pathway’ theme is carried through the site.

The design is welcoming, with a real, human approach that’s a bit of fun. The photography uses real Scope participants as the subject.

Throughout the content pages, key information – such as contact details or calls to action – are highlighted and easy to find. Again, this design element was a direct result of the findings in our persona analysis.

Web accessibility and WCAG.

While some agencies may shy away from WCAG we took a different approach.

The website is Level AAA in most parts and Level AA where AAA was not possible. The site is readable on screen readers. We rigorously tested font sizes and usage to meet the guidelines. We also used contrast checkers to meet guideline 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).

Test and learn.

When it came time to test the website, we left no stone unturned. Over three days, a cross-section of Scope’s customers, supporters and staff scrutinised the website to see how it would perform.

During this phase of the project the feedback we received allowed us to make some key changes to the site before launch. This is what we learnt:

1. Main navigation

Our approach to the main navigation was generally well received. It originally covered the entire browser screen. However, people found it confusing as it appeared like a stand-alone page rather than an overlay. We changed the menu to become a side fly-in as opposed to an overlay.

2. Dexterity

The site incorporates a range of functionality that makes for a better experience for those with dexterity issues. The functionality includes the ability to make all pages on the site smaller or larger using the A+ and A- buttons at the top right of the site. It corresponds to the guideline 1.4.4 Resize text for Level AA compliance.

We also ensured that all buttons are large enough to minimise mouse precision when trying to click them. While not specific to WCAG, we consider it a best practice consideration because it provides for a better experience.

3. Consistency

We encountered some confusion where to access certain pages. For example, the location page is a sub-page of the About Us section – rather than Contact Us – and the links to it in the icon panel were not replicated in the main navigation. We reviewed and moved all page locations with Scope to eliminate this confusion.

4. Screen readers

We improved areas of the site to ensure people using screen readers had a good experience. A screen reader tells the user when a field is mandatory rather than just reading out an asterisk. We modified the HTML on the site to enable a screen reader to recognise mandatory fields. It also provides a description of the captcha field and instructions on how to fill it in.

When searching the site using a screen reader, the reader needs consistent terminology. For example, all versions of ‘contact’ were changed to ‘contact us’ to maintain the common use of this term. On the homepage, we made the ‘Read more’ links a better experience for screen reader users. When a user hovers over these links, the reader says the name of the section they are choosing to read more about. For example, ‘Read more about Early Years’.

Launching the site.

While it’s still early days, the feedback from Scope’s participants has been positive. Since launching in January, Scope has already noticed an influx of inquiries and that the quality of inquiries has improved.

If you, or someone you know, requires disability support services, Scope is an organisation that can help. The work they do to support people with a disability through support services and research is invaluable to the community and important to know about.