Safaricom’s Director of Corporate Affairs Nzioka Waita takes Neslon, a student at Thika School for the Blind through the new Safaricom website
Safaricom has launched a one of a kind website in Kenya. The revamped website, www.safaricom.co.ke will be fully accessible to Visually Impaired persons. The new website was launched at Thika School For The Blind where a few students were given a chance to try it out.
“In Kenya today, there are more than 300,000 people who are visually impaired or blind, and can therefore not benefit from the wealth of information on the internet,†said Safaricom’s Director of Corporate Affairs Nzioka Waita.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organisation states that only 5% of all published works are currently available in formats accessible to the Visually Impaired persons. Safaricom is now making it possible for them to get the same content as their sighted customers.
The Safaricom website complies with guidelines and standards as defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI). Through conformance to these guidelines, www.safaricom.co.ke has attained AAA rating from inABLE (a non-governmental organization that empowers the visually impaired through assistive technology) towards its Non-Visual Accessibility Certification. The National Council of Persons with Disabilities has also certified that the website is fully accessible to persons with visual disabilities.
inAble Executive Director, Irene Mbari- Kirika said: “Accessibility is an ongoing process because everything changes like a moving target. Technology changes, the needs of users change, and information providers also change. Therefore, as businesses engage in new designs, it is good business practice to engage in universal designs for Accessibility.â€
The website contains the following features:
• Apart from inclusion of persons with visual impairment, the website has other features like accessibility on Desktop, Mobile, Tablets and Feature Phones.
• It has personalized access through Favorites Function (users can favorite content that they frequently access).
• Drives customer engagement through share and comments functions across the website.
• Drives utility for customers by simplifying access of information such as PayBill numbers.
• Single view of offers- compiling RRP, Jisort na Bonga and Bonga offering per device. The compare and handset review functionality has been enhanced.
• Enables Safaricom to offer value to customers and partners by highlighting relevant offers in the deals section.