The festive season is a time of joy, reflection, and celebration. It’s a season when we come together with friends or family to enjoy our traditions. But in an increasingly digital age, this togetherness often happens online, whether buying gifts, booking a festive city break at a Christmas market, donating to a charity or booking a visit to the pantomime. Technology plays a significant role in how we connect and celebrate. Yet, there are still digital barriers faced by 1 billion people worldwide.
Accessible Travel During the Holidays
The festive season is one of the busiest times for travel, with many people seeking to reunite with family or explore new destinations. However, travel organisations must prioritise inclusion to ensure all travellers can enjoy their journeys.
Travel companies should offer comprehensive information on accessibility features for their services, such as transportation, accommodations, and attractions as well as providing a way in which travellers can read and understand information in a way that best suits their needs. This transparency allows travellers to make informed decisions when searching and booking travel arrangements during the festive season.
Daish’s Holidays Case Study
Daish’s Holidays are specialists in UK holiday breaks with a family of hotels and luxury coaches. With Daish’s Holidays, Christmas always comes early with their ‘Tinsel and Turkey’ breaks throughout November and December. These 4-night breaks include all the fun of the festive period along with their half-board coach holidays with live nightly entertainment. Also offering full board Christmas and New Year holidays to finish the year in style.
Daish’s Holidays has always prioritised inclusion, catering for disabilities on our coaches and in their hotels. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for Daish’s Holidays to continue this across their digital platform. They certainly wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on a chance to meet Santa on one of their festive breaks! Daish’s Holidays implemented Recite Me assistive technology on its website and has been providing an inclusive digital experience for all ever since.
Darren Gilchrist, IT Manager at Daish’s Holidays told us, “We know our guests often have issues with their sight so when we discovered Recite Me, it was clear they were the perfect addition to our website. Having the ability to change font size or even have the page read aloud has really helped so many of our site visitors.”
In the last 12 months, Daish's Holidays has seen:
9,450
Unique Users
103,000
Page Views
10.91
Pages Viewed Per Session
Festive Fun for Everyone – Inclusive Shopping and Leisure Activities
The festive season is a time of relaxation and enjoyment when we focus on activities such as shopping, enjoying festive performances, exploring attractions such as ice rinks and museums or eating at restaurants.
Ensuring searching and booking leisure activities or ordering shopping online is inclusive for all is often overlooked for individuals with disabilities, varying abilities and those who speak English as a second language. Embracing digital inclusion means creating opportunities for everyone to engage in festive fun.
Polka Theatre Case Study
Polka Theatre is a world-class theatre that aims to entertain and inspire young audiences. Not only a theatre, Polka are a hub for classroom resources, news articles and creative industry opportunities as well as a charity that supports disadvantaged children in enjoying or participating in theatre.
It is important to Polka Theatre that inclusion is a consideration all year round, but over the festive period, they do have more people visiting their website and their venue to see noth the festive show and workshops they have on offer. Which led Polka Theatre to take on the Recite Me assistive toolbar.
Sara Greenwood, Head of Sales and Marketing at Polka Theatre said, “The Recite Me toolbar enables our website viewers to personalise their online journey to their own needs. They can explore the website and all it has to offer instead of having to call the Box Office with specific enquiries.
“Although our Box Office team are always happy to assist with any enquiries, Recite Me allows customers to have more freedom to explore and discover what is of interest to them with greater independence.”
The festive season is a time when many people engage in charitable activities to give back and spread joy during the festive season. With inclusive digital platforms, charities can make it easy for donors to contribute regardless of their technological skills or access limitations, helping to maximise the season’s generosity. Many people rely on online channels for convenience during the holidays, and inclusive digital campaigns enable charities to reach potential donors on mobile devices, social media and websites, where they’re already active. Additionally, inclusive online engagement allows charities to share festive stories, fundraising events, and volunteer opportunities with diverse audiences, helping them feel connected and part of a meaningful cause.
Shelter Cymru is the people and homes charity of Wales, its vision is that a decent, secure home is a fundamental right and essential to the health and well-being of communities. Supporting thousands of people each year who are affected by housing emergencies, offering free confidential advice.
Shelter Cymru took on the Recite Me toolbar in 2023 to help them build bridges between their online platform and the 21% of Welsh individuals who have some form of disability.
David Roberts, Access and Inclusion Officer at Shelter Cymru told us, “We at Shelter Cymru are delighted to partner with Recite Me to make our website more inclusive and accessible for our service users. We believe that the toolbar and its vast array of features will instantly make our information significantly more accessible to those with protected characteristics and will help us to deliver support for individuals in need of vital housing advice.”
How Recite Me Can Help:
Recite Me Toolbar
Any organisation, whether it be an e-commerce store, charity or hotel, can integrate Recite Me’s assistive toolbar into their website. Once integrated, the toolbar offers website users a range of different customisation functions, among other things.
Some of the toolbar’s main features include:
- Personalise font size, colour and type.
- Screen Mask & Ruler tools for reading.
- Download written content as an audio file.
- Screen Reader.
- Translation to over 100 languages.
- Customising PDF documents.
Recite Me Checker
It’s all well and good to make reasonable adjustments for website visitors, but that does not necessarily mean your digital content is fully accessible. Our accessibility checker conducts an audit of your website, scanning it for any non-compliant or inaccessible features, and organising the results into an actionable list with recommendations to help you resolve any issues. The accessibility checker compliments the assistive toolbar and should be implemented alongside it.
The checker adheres to the following process:
Step 1: Scan Your Domains
Step 2: Identify Accessibility Issues
Step 3: Fix Accessibility Errors
Step 4: Track Your Progress
Step 5: Download & Share and Accessibility Report
As we celebrate this festive season, let’s commit to embracing digital inclusion across e-commerce, leisure, charity and travel. By prioritising inclusivity, we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage in the joy and spirit of the seasons. Together, we can create a more connected and compassionate community, making this festive season truly special for all.
3 Steps to Get Your Website Ready for the Festive Rush
The festive season brings a surge in online activity, from holiday shopping and charitable donations to booking trips and leisure activities. If your website isn’t accessible, you could be missing out on valuable traffic and turning away potential customers and supporters. Check out our 3 step guide to make sure your website is ready for the busy festive period.
