It’s been a busy few months for the digital team at RCOT as we ramp up the development of our new website.
We have a bold vision to transform our member offer and a new website will mean we can better serve and support our growing occupational therapy community. Our website is our shop window into RCOT. It’s the way we share content, information, resources and details of our events that are viewed and consumed by members, external stakeholders and those with a general interest in occupational therapy.
Based on the findings of our member research and some focused member website experience research we conducted earlier in the year; we’ve identified several ways we can improve the site for existing users and make it more attractive to new, prospective audiences to widen our reach.
A commitment to improving accessibility
There are many things we want to achieve with our new website, for example:
• Feature more content focused around specialisms and career stages,
• Improve the member portal so members can easily update their own records and tell us what they are interested in so we can tailor content and information
• Provide a single point of access to all the other digital systems that an RCOT membership offers such as your CPD portfolio or the digital library.
Delivering on our equity, diversity and belonging goals
But central to these ambitions are our Equity, Diversity and Belonging vision and goals. A significant priority for us is to make the website more accessible and user-friendly. We’re actively thinking about the diverse mix of people who use our website and the different needs, requirements or tools they might be using.
Improving website accessibility is not only best practice but means everyone should be able to find what they're looking for. We’re aiming to achieve an AA rating for Web Content Accessibility (a set of guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium) and to also meet the standards set for public bodies by gov.uk.
So, what sort of features will we see when the new website launches?
Accessible and inclusive language and text
Language evolves over time so the language and terminology we’ll use will be inclusive, easy to read and understand, up to date and reflect what people are likely to be searching for. This is especially important for the top-level navigation structure - effectively the toolbar that offers you dropdown menus of options to take you to more focused pages. Within the copy itself, we’re aiming for a reading age of approximately 12 years old (unless its academic where it’ll be closer to 18 years old). These aren’t just for accessibility purposes – plain, simple language works best for us all.
Built with assistive technology in mind
We’re making sure that the content on the website will be compatible with assistive technology like screen readers, magnifiers, other plug ins and for those who don’t use a mouse. You’ll see more headings to break up blocks of text, bullet points and buttons to highlight a link or action for someone to take. There will be an intuitive order of content and a ‘focus state’ if you’re tabbing through content so you’ll easily be able to find where you are on the page. And we’ll use alternative text to add additional context to a page like an image description so someone who’s visually impaired and using a screen reader can still understand what’s been presented.
A more cohesive experience
We want members and visitors to have a seamless and cohesive browsing experience. We’ll bring ChooseOT, our dedicated recruitment focused microsite, onto the main website so there’s better synergy between the two. You’ll be able to access all the different systems you receive as part of your RCOT membership through the member portal. You’ll also be able to tell us what your interests are so over time we can offer tailored content and resources relevant to you, your practice and region.
We’re also taking steps so the same language and terminology on the website is what you’ll see on the new online community engagement platform RCOT Communities when it launches meaning you’ll be able to move easily from resources to spaces for discussions and networking seamlessly.
Test, test and test again
To meet the needs of the widest range of users we’re working with members and a mix of different audiences to test the site as we develop it. Thank you to all those members who put themselves forward for this research and who have helped us strengthen our approach. Over the coming months we’ll also work with a range of people with different impairments to ensure our accessibility approach is working.
We’re excited about developing a new and improved site for you and look forward to sharing this with you in the Spring next year.