Success Stories
Utilities

British Gas Energy Trust

British Gas Energy Trust was originally established in 2004 as an independent Charitable Trust. In 2019 its assets and liabilities were transferred to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

The Trust contributes to the relief of poverty in England, Wales, and Scotland; with a particular focus on fuel poverty by helping those who are struggling to pay for their consumption of gas and electricity get back on their feet and remain debt-free going forward.

Since the launch of the Trust in 2004, over £103 million has been spent helping over 157,000 people manage their energy costs.

Our Brief

The new trust website provides support information, online application forms, and signposting to third-party services. In order to help better support people in vulnerable circumstances and people who may have disabilities, learning difficulties, visual impairments, or people who speak English as a second language, the British Gas Energy Trust’s new website needed to provide accessibility support.

Our Solution

To help people in vulnerable circumstances and people who may have disabilities, learning difficulties, visual impairments or people who speak English as a second language, the British Gas Energy Trust website provides accessibility and language support.

This inclusive support is provided through a range of tools to help people visiting the website customise their viewing and reading experience. This could be by using the screen reading to read aloud content, changing the page style to customise the colour and size of foreground text, links, and backgrounds, or using the reading aids to mask distractions on the screen.

People who speak English as a second language will benefit from the real-time translation feature which can translate over 100 languages, including 65 text-to-speech voices.

“British Gas Energy Trust helps people in financial need, and accessibility is essential – especially for those who don’t speak English as their first language. The Trust is delighted that with the support of Recite Me, the British Gas Energy Trust now provides barrier-free access to our online application forms. Enabling people with a range of accessibility issues, including visual impairments, dyslexia, colour blindness and other forms of neurodiversity, as well as those who need to use alternative languages to apply.”