BNI Chichester Festival

About Access-by design

As a composer for TV and broadcast media, Clive’s previous clients range from Universal Studios, Disney, BBC and Channel 4. Jess is an established international digital artist with a series of high profile, worldwide exhibition credentials and global awards including winner of the International Digital Art prize 2006. Her work with the software Flash was extensively featured in a recent book highlighting best practice.

Until 2007 they both complimented their digital art and music careers by university lecturing but in May 2007 they decided to combine their talents and form the company Access – by Design, a website design company with a difference.

Access – by Design promised to allow their separate creative attributes to blossom together in new arena. As a digital artist, it was natural that Jess would become the web designer whist Clive, with his experience in a wide range of media technologies and people skills, would direct and technically support the venture and run the recording studio.

By 2008 the company had expanded from creating smaller dynamic (client controlled) websites to fully accessible e-commerce and interactive portfolios. This expansion allowed them to take on new staff including a copy writer , website trainer and quality control manager, Lucy Wright, and young designer Paul Whitehead, a specialist in dynamic design, web development, vector graphics and photography.

Now established as a reliable and professional company, Access – by Design has begun working in partnership with other local firms enabling the provision of full design packages from web to print to media at affordable and competitive prices. Their in-house studio also offers clients state-of-the-art recording facilities to create downloadable visual and audio material to sell through their new e-commerce sites.

By the end of 2008 the company was nominated as finalists (and given special mention) at the Disabled Go Access Awards and awarded as 1 of 3 finalists for Sussex 2008 New Business of the Year and were short-listed for the Observer Business of the Year Awards 2008. In 2009 they were nominated as finalists for the Sussex Small Business Awards 2009.

Access – by Design are currently undergoing a major expansion, including new purpose built offices, employing a new junior designer and office manager and increasing their pool of sub-contracted web testers, all of whom have disabilities.

There are two major elements that make Access – by Design different;

• Firstly is the belief that all businesses should be able to run their own websites – as they know most about their own companies – without it becoming either a burden or their needing design skills
• Secondly that all websites should be accessible – not only for the range of new and emerging technologies to access the internet (from mobile phones to digital TV) but for disabled people who were/are struggling to access the internet because of a blockade of poorly designed sites, created in ignorance of accessible design standards.

After less than 3 years of trading, Access – by Design has over 100 websites either created or in production. Their sites range from fantastically successful e-commerce to local parish councils to individual traders – with site statistics that make SEO companies green with envy!.

Computer Braille Reader Access – by Design has always been lucky to have a “pool” of friends with disabilities that have helped test and give REAL, un-automated web accessibility feedback on our websites but by 2009, we were able to start to employ an actual team of people with disabilities to ensure our sites meet the highest accessibility standards.