UK Consumer Finance - progress in making their websites accessible

31 Mar 2020 | Index | Accessibility

Adam Turner
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At Sitemorse we published our 2020 Q1 UK Consumer Finance PLCs INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2009 and ranks the websites of over 230 UK Public Limited Companies, based on User Experience, Search Engine Optimisation and Governance, Risk and Compliance.

Congratulations to John Charcol for retaining first place, as they have now for 3 years. Also congratulations are due to Jersey Financial Services Commission for being the most improved.

No companies within the Consumer Finance INDEX passed Level A and AA on all of their pages.

If we focus purely on Accessibility, then then we see that:

  • Only 2 companies scored 7 or higher
  • 83% of companies scored 4 or less
  • 33% actually scored zero

Comparing results with last quarter, 12 companies improved their accessibility score from the last quarter, while 19 scored lower. 6 companies failed all of the WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA tests on every single page.

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.

Top ten websites

  1. John Charcol
  2. GCA Altium
  3. The West Brom
  4. Jersey Financial Services Commission
  5. HSBC Bank
  6. National Savings & Investments (ns&i)
  7. Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen
  8. Chelsea Building Society
  9. M&G Investments
  10. First Response Finance

Five Most improved websites

  • Jersey Financial Services Commission
  • BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK
  • HSBC Bank
  • Family Investments
  • Vanquis Bank

The full 2020 Q1 UK Consumer Finance results can be found here: Sitemorse UK Consumer Finance INDEX