Corporate Travel Management (CTM) has become the first TMC
in the UK to receive Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) accreditation,
meaning its Lightning online booking tool meets recommendations to improve
accessibility for people with vision, hearing, mobility, thinking and
understanding impairments.
Lightning has been recognised as being fully compliant with
WCAG 2.1 AA, which is based on the design principles of perceivable, operable,
understandable and robust. These are supported by 12 guidelines, each broken
down into a number of success criteria. CTM underwent an independent technical
audit to be awarded the accreditation, which is valid for 12 months.
According to CTM, the booking tool now incorporates
functionality for European users with a disability or impairment, including:
- A text-to-speech feature that reads text out
loud for people with limited vision,
- A screen magnifier that enlarges part or all of
the web page,
- Speech recognition functionality that allows
users with limited mobility to control the computer with their voice,
- Active Focus, which makes it easier for keyboard
users to track and view the item their mouse or mouse alternative is currently
focused on,
- An interface colour palette that ensures text
displays clearly against the background colour,
- and the elimination of all blinking and flashing
content.
According to disabilities charity Scope, there are 13.9
million people registered as having a disability in the UK, including 19 per
cent of the adult workforce.
CTM Europe chief executive Debbie Carling commented: “At
CTM, we work with a broad range of customers across multiple industries and
markets, and we are proud to support all our customers in achieving greater
technological accessibility and inclusion for their employees.”