We were recommended to Ennismore by WordPress VIP, as a reliable and experienced partner to help them develop a suite of hotel websites for new openings across the globe.
As one of the fastest growing hospitality brands in the world, Ennismore needs to showcase its award-winning hotels with high-quality digital marketing experiences, and Filter was uniquely positioned to help achieve this.
Ennismore sites are hosted on the WordPress VIP platform, which provides a secure and scalable web experience, allowing comfort that the underlying infrastructure is geared to delivering their sites to the widest possible audience.
However, they needed specific help to deliver in multiple languages, whilst ensuring that the approach to design and content was consistent, making it accessible to all.
As a global provider, Ennismore is committed to providing inclusive experiences to customers and is aware of its duties from a regulatory perspective to ensure that visitors can access their content regardless of disability.
This includes guidelines such as WCAG 2.1. The Equality Act in the UK, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Each of these provides specific requirements for businesses and organisations to adhere to, and a framework in which to achieve these aims.
As part of the project, Ennismore introduced us to one of their accessibility partners, Web Usability, who are now a Filter implementation partner.
Web Usability has a long-term relationship with Ennismore, and has conducted several accessibility audits and reviews of their digital properties, providing them with feedback on how to address issues within their brand guidelines.
As the build partner, we worked closely with Web Usability to understand the requirements for the site and specific goals for the delivery of content.
This ranged from ensuring that the colour contrast of the site designs met the correct standards, to coding the site to work with screen readers and ensuring that text was accessible.
As part of the build process, we regularly used the WAVE Evolution Chrome plugin to ensure that the code we were developing was meeting the correct standards and that we had included all relevant tags.
We also used the WordPress Accessibility Checker plugin, which allowed us to scan the site for accessibility issues and receive a detailed report highlighting any issues found.
Whilst automated tools were helpful, we know that this should go hand-in-hand with manual testing to ensure that any issues were captured, triaged and addressed correctly.
For instance, items such as the following are hard for accessibility tools to comprehend automatically and often require real-user testing, particularly by those with disabilities that may be affected:
Of course, the process was made easier by the fact that we were developing the sites on the WordPress platform. As one of the easiest-to-use content management systems, and using one of the many SEO plugins available, WordPress makes it effortless for editors to write optimised content and receive feedback on readability, tone of voice and inclusivity.
And from a development perspective, our teams can make updates to code underneath the hood quickly and without complex build processes.
We don’t just rely upon our ability to look at a site and tick a box to meet the guidelines. Accessibility for WordPress involves a range of techniques and best practices to make the platform usable for everyone, regardless of their abilities.
Filter has significant experience in dealing with large complex sites where accessibility is a high priority, so if you would like to chat about how you can achieve the right level of accessibility for your business or organisation, please get in touch for a free consultation.
We worked closely with our partners at Web Usability to put together an extensive guide. Aiming to help modern-day marketers adhere to accessibility guidelines and standards.
By the end of the project, we were able to deliver a fully-accessible website for the SO/ brand that works not only for users of different languages but also for users with disabilities, meaning that the site is available for anyone to visit and understand.
You can visit the website to learn about the hotel’s offerings and book a hotel room by clicking the link below.
