New Media Awards 2007 Atos Origin

John Stewart & Duncan Stevenson

http://www.accessibilityinfocus.co.uk

Nominated in Young innovator award category.

A team of 2nd year multimedia students from Brunel University, John Stewart and Duncan Stevenson, are leading the way in promoting new media by demonstrating that accessible websites can have a major impact on improving public life.

In a design challenge jointly run by Reading Room alongside their graduate recruitment scheme, students were asked to produce a working prototype for a site that displayed accessible thinking and wonderful creative design.

1 nomination from readers

  • The winning project www.accessibilityinfocus.co.uk is an awards site celebrating good accessible design. The concept has proved so successful that the winning team have been asked to launch the awards and the website.

    They have achieved a first for students and brought the best out of their skills in design, accessibility, marketing, and presentation. John and Duncan have attracted high profile attention and gained the support from leading experts in the new media industry – including Phil Jones (Director of Real Time Consultancy), Rob Ford (Founder of The Favourite Website Awards), Andy Bud (Creative Director ClearLeft), and Richard Rutter (Production Director, ClearLeft) – all of whom will be acting as judges.

    Over 20 proposals were submitted from the teams of students in the challenge. These were whittled down to a shortlist of four and the teams were invited to present their ideas to the Reading Room Board. The winning team excelled in their presentations showing great character in convincing the panel of their ambitious project.

    The 6 month project with Brunel University combined guidance and support for students with the practical experience of creating communication campaigns. They were given the opportunity to explain how they would market their concept and how data capture from their site would be effectively utilised.

    Reading Room have worked with John and Duncan to finish the development of the site and to help realise the potential of the idea. Margaret Manning, CEO Reading Room commented: “We are delighted with the winning project and are even more impressed by our young innovators. They have truly embraced new media and shown how accessible websites can benefit everyone”.

    Nominated by Stel Grekos, 31 May 2007