Global Life Sciences - progress in making their websites accessible

15 Sep 2020 | Index | Accessibility

Adam Turner
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At Sitemorse we published our 2020 Q3 Global Life Sciences INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2009 and ranks the websites of nearly 200 companies based on User Experience, Search Engine Optimisation and Governance, Risk and Compliance.

Our Q3 2020 INDEX was compiled on 9th July 2020 and in its preparation, we ran over 96 million tests checks and measures across over 295,000 URLs.

Congratulations go to Apotex for retaining first place and also for taking the lead in Accessibility in this sector. Also, congratulations are due to Taisho Pharmaceutical for being the most improved, rising 86v places.

If we focus purely on Accessibility, then we see that

  • Only 3 companies scored 7 or higher.
  • 84% scored 4 or less.
  • 35% actually scored zero

Comparing results with last quarter, only 10 companies improved their accessibility score from the last quarter, while 20 scored lower. 4 companies failed all of the WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA tests on every single page.

Making websites accessible is law - in the US there is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and in the UK 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 Global Life Sciences Websites

  1. Apotex
  2. Medivir Group
  3. EISAI UK
  4. Ligand Pharmaceuticals
  5. Stallergenes
  6. Yakult UK
  7. Xoma
  8. Zambon
  9. Kyorin Holdings
  10. SOBI

Five Most Improved

  • Taisho Pharmaceutical
  • Vertex Pharmaceuticals
  • Patheon
  • Abbott Uk
  • Allergan

The full 2020 Q3 Global Life Sciences results can be found here: Sitemorse 2020 Q3 Global Life Sciences INDEX