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Black Widow is an accessible web design company based in Liverpool offering high quality design and consultancy services with an emphasis on standards compliancy, web accessibility and jargon-free, individualised, client support.

As a female-led consultancy, we specialise in providing web services to women-managed businesses, communities and social enterprises across Merseyside and the North West of England. We develop standards compliant sites that combine high web accessibility levels with effective design - without compromising on looks or corporate image.

We also have extensive experience of developing web pages and have worked in many languages including Slovenian, Hebrew, Arabic and Chinese.

Services

Black Widow's services include:

• Web Design & Development
• Web Site Accessibility Assessments
• Web Consultancy
• Site Maintenance
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Traffic Monitoring
• Ecommerce Solutions
• Scripted Solutions
• Customised Graphics

Accessible Web Design

One of the main goals of accessible web design is to open up the Web for people with disabilities by creating flexible sites that accommodate each visitor's needs and preferences. Given that there are about 10 million people with disabilities in the UK alone, increasing web site accessibility can significantly increase your customer base.

However, accessible web sites have been consistently shown to benefit everyone - whether they have a recognised disability or not - because these designs make best use of the technologies available. For example, a compliant, accessible web site can be usable on both a cellphone and a large desktop computer computer. Modern, standards-based design methods can also reduce the overall weight of a site by 25% to 50% without reducing the site's content - so visitors can access pages on your site that much more quickly and effectively.

The technology used to create accessible sites also benefits site owners directly as many site-wide changes can be made relatively quickly by any web developer with access to the relevant standards specifications - thus reducing your lock-in with any one design company or application.

In summary, evidence suggests that all web users, and site owners, prefer accessible web sites because they are easier to use, more responsive and simpler to maintain - regardless of what technology, specialist or otherwise, is being used to access them.

If you would like to learn more about the commercial benefits that can be gained by adopting a standards compliant web site, you can find more information at maccaws.org.

We would especially recommend that all current, or potential, web site owners should consult the documents PAS 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites and What Every Web Site Owner Should Know About Accessibility.