A Kent law firm that clinched a first by winning a prestigious award for making its Web site accessible to visually impaired people has revealed that it reaped unexpected commercial benefits.

Canterbury-based Furley Page drafted in the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), which runs a benchmarking scheme, as it was concerned that it could not advise its clients on diversity and access unless it had a site that was compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.


Research by the Disability Rights Commission has shown that lawyers are not alone in struggling to make their Web sites comply with the legislation; 81% of companies fall down on even the most basic accessibility requirements.


It is the first time the RNIB has handed out an award to a law firm. Furley Page's site now provides alternatives for images and script-based functions, and the new set- up means that browsers without these features are unhindered, so the site is fully accessible with Braille software and voice browsers.


Senior partner Peter Hawkes explained: 'The main problem with a lot of Web sites is that they use pictures - but the text voice recognition software [used by visually impaired people] doesn't recognise pictures. There was quite a lot of work involved, but we ended up with a Web site that people with visual disabilities can use. Having gone through that process ourselves, we can advise clients on this issue as well as advising them on other aspects of Web development.'


Mr Hawkes added that as well as being in a better position to educate clients, the firm was receiving more hits on Web searches. 'You can make your site much more readable by the robots that search engines use because they are all searching for text and not pictures,' he said. 'We have had a much higher success rate on searches since we updated the site.'


For details contact the RNIB's Web access team, tel: 020 7391 2178, or visit: www.rnib.org.uk.