Tate Online wins accessibility award

i-Map, the arts resource for visually impaired people developed by Tate Online and BT, has won a web accessibility award.

The judges awarded Tate Online the 2006 Jodi Award for Excellence in Museum, Library and Archive Web Accessibility, because the site was a "world leader in making online collections accessible to blind and partially sighted people".

Tate Online currently displays some 65,000 images of art from the Tate galleries, and new content is constantly added. i-Map has been vital in making these online collections accessible to those who are visually impaired.

The site incorporates audio content so visitors can hear detailed descriptions of each work as well as watch full screen animations, which highlight and simplify key aspects of the included works.

Written information such as biographies and orientation is left as text and can be enlarged or accessed via screen-reader technology.

Visitors to the site can also download drawings which can be printed out as raised images on special paper.