The pathway to accessibility
The Gruppo Banca Carige has always carried out its activities, paying great attention to the respect of its customers and human relationships.
Accordingly, it has decided to invest in this sense in the Internet as well, permitting access to the contents, information and services offered by its website to all the users, also those with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities. Consequently, the website www.gruppocarige.it presents itself to navigators under a new aspect, featuring an immediate search facility and clear and functional communication, in line with all the accessibility parameters.
THE GUIDELINES
Pursuant to Italian Law No. 4/2004, the so-called Stanca Law, regarding accessibility, the following guidelines have been followed:
- Provide equivalent alternatives to the audio and visual content
- Do not reply on colour alone
- Use markers and style leaves and do so appropriately
- Ensure that the pages which give space to new technologies transform elegantly and consistently
- Ensure the direct accessibility of the incorporated user interfaces
- Design so as to guarantee independence from devices
- Use W3C technologies and recommendations
- Provide information for contextualization and orientation
- Provide clear navigation mechanisms
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
Adaptation to the accessibility parameters means making one's website available to anyone, by means of the adoption of precise technical expedients which are extended to all the elements of the website. Thanks to a carefully considered design choice, navigation of the www.gruppocarige.it website has been simplified by a complete menu, which makes it possible to scroll from one subject to another without excessive intermediate stages, eliminating the key aspects which render users' navigation less intuitive.
The contents and the graphics have also been adapted to the new criteria: the text uses solutions aimed at clarity and simplicity and an alternative text description is included for each image. To facilitate access by the partially sighted to the contents, a method for viewing the text has been envisaged, with enlarged letters which can be increased via the browser, without prejudicing the legibility of the same. The website's structure is conceived so as to facilitate navigations by means of the use of assisting technologies such as screen readers or magnifying software.
Furthermore, accessibility criteria use standard IT languages observing the formal grammar established by International bodies, so as to obtain the best degree of compatibility with the various Browsers.
WHY FOCUS ON ACCESSIBILITY
Carige's mission has always been to take care of its customers and, therefore, the website also aims to reflect the objectives and the standards which the Group sets itself in the real world. Embracing the accessibility philosophy is a commitment which involves the adoption of specific technical choices and the performance of fundamental stages, but the result is without doubt positive. In fact, an accessible website guarantees a quality image and the answer to one's customers needs, without distinction. This is why the Carige Group is the leading banking group in Italy to have launched a serious and complete pathway to accessibility, seeking to surmount the new multimedia barriers in this way.
The pathway
The project was entrusted to Wmc, a special lab of CircleCap, which followed the accessibility project for Gruppo Banca Carige and single bank sites (Banca Carige, Cassa di Risparmio di Savona, Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara and Banca del Monte di Lucca) since 2008.
The pathway to accessibility, begun in 2008 with the grant made available by the David Chiossone Co-operative, continues throughout the 2011, with the Group sites restyling, confirming the commitment and focus on content fruition
