At Sitemorse we published our Q1 2021 AIM INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2015 and ranks the websites of nearly 700 companies according to their digital compliance score, which is based on a combination of online performance measures including adherence to accessibility standards, privacy regulation and level of content failure.

Our Q1 2021 INDEX was compiled following over 230 million tests checks and measures across over 715,000 URLs. 

We’ve produced a short video about the INDEX results and how to view the key actions for each website:

Congratulations go to Evgen Pharma for taking first place. Also, congratulations are due to Transense Technologies for being the most improved, rising an impressive 513 places.

Those companies scoring highly provide confidence to investors and the public that they not only take their compliance responsibilities seriously but that they also have the systems and processes in place to adhere to the increasingly demanding regulatory environment.

Since Q4 2020, 63 companies have improved the accessibility of their website, whilst 65 have seen it decline.

No companies passed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level A and AA tests on 100% of their web pages with 15 companies failing the level A and AA tests on every page. Indeed nearly 96% of web pages failed the level A tests and 52% failed the level AA tests. More than 5,300 PDFs were accessed with only 8% passing all of the WCAG accessibility tests.

If we focus on accessibility, 7 companies scored 8 (out of 10) for accessibility - they should all be congratulated for taking the lead in this sector on accessibility. The 7 companies were:

• FRP Advisory
• IMPAX Asset Management
• Zanaga Iron Ore Company
• Tracsis
• Mission
• Frontier IP Group
• The Character Group

As for the rest of the companies in the INDEX:

• Only 2% of companies scored 7 or higher.
• 54% scored 4 or less.
• 25% actually scored zero

In the event of 2 organisations being tied then the organisation who scored higher in the previous quarter’s INDEX is ranked higher.

Making a website accessible comes under the Equalities Act 2000. We’ve already seen that in the US that lawsuits alleging web sites discriminating against people with disabilities are increasingly common and there is no reason that the UK won’t face the similar lawsuits.

The Top Ten AIM Websites

1. Evgen Pharma
2. Deltic Energy PLC
3. Sunrise Resources
4. Caledonia Mining
5. Ceres Power
6. Conygar Investment Company Plc
7. Longboat Energy
8. Sylvania Platinum
9. Frontier IP Group
10. Velocys

Five Most Improved

• Transense Technologies
• Ten Lifestyle Group
• IDE Group Holdings PLC
• React Group
• Sabien Technology Group

The full 2021 Q1 AIM results can be found here: Sitemorse AIM INDEX