Case Study: Recite Me Helps Everton Improve Online Accessibility
Everton Football Club is an English Premier League club which has been playing at the top level continuously since 1954.
From being one of the founder members of the football league in 1888, right through to present day when Everton made technological and sporting history by helping a child too sick to travel to become the world’s first ‘virtual matchday mascot’ – experiencing the excitement of going on to the pitch via a specially-designed telepresence robot carried by captain Phil Jagielka in the 2017/18 season – Everton has always been at the forefront of innovation and inclusion.
Our Brief
Everton Football club launched their ‘All Together Now’ initiative in December 2018 to celebrate diversity and increase awareness of everything done by the Blues and Everton in the Community to promote equality and diversity. To support this, they wanted to be able to connect with all of their fans regardless of their disability or where they live online.
The easiest way to communicate with all fans from around the world, in one place as one inclusive community, is through their official club website evertonfc.com. To support people with disabilities, visual impairments or people who speak English as a second language, they wanted to provide accessibility tools to allow all people to engage with the club.
Our Solution
To support all fans and website visitors, Everton integrated Recite Me into their official website. This innovative accessibility software will help bring supporters closer to the Blues by allowing fans to understand and interact with the latest Everton content on the club’s website hassle-free regardless of disability, age or language.
The accessibility toolbar provides a number of features to give a user full control over the customisation of the website to suit their needs. These features include screen reader, styling options, reading support and a translation tool with over 100 languages, including 35 text to speech voices.
Rachael Lomax, Access Advisor, Everton Football Club, commented: “We’re delighted to be able to introduce Recite Me to the official Everton website. It is important that we have tools like this, that reflect the diversity of our fanbase, ensuring that everybody can connect with our club easily and in a way that suits their individual needs.
“At Everton we are always looking at innovative ways in which we can make the club more accessible and inclusive for supporters and implementing the Recite Me tool is another step in the right direction on this journey.”
