01 Dec 2020 | Index | Accessibility
At Sitemorse we published our 2020 Q4 London Listed PLCs INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2010 and ranks the websites of over 460 companies according to their digital compliance score and is based on a combination of online performance measures including adherence to accessibility standards, privacy regulation and level of content failure.
Our Q4 2020 INDEX was compiled following over 280 million tests checks and measures across over 860,000 URLs.
Congratulations go to Marston’s for retaining first place. Also, congratulations are due to Spirent Communications for being the most improved, rising a very impressive 399 places.
Those companies scoring highly provide confidence to customers, shareholders 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.
If we focus purely on Accessibility, Marston’s should be congratulated for taking the lead in this sector scoring 9 (out of 10). Summarising accessibility scores we see that:
- Only 2 companies scored 7 or higher.
- 87% scored 4 or less.
- With 45% actually scoring zero
Comparing results with last quarter, 30 companies improved their accessibility score from the last quarter, while 103 saw their score decline. 18 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.
The Top Ten London Listed PLCs’ Websites
- Marston's PLC
- Quilter PLC
- Berkeley Group Holdings PLC
- Pharos Energy PLC
- Harworth Group PLC
- Bank of Georgia
- Ashmore Group PLC
- British American Tobacco PLC
- Essentra PLC
- Edinburgh Partners LTD
Five Most Improved
- Spirent Communications PLC
- Watches of Switzerland Group PLC
- Aveva Group PLC
- SDL PLC
- London Stock Exchange Group PLC
The full 2020 Q4 London Listed PLCs results can be found here: Sitemorse 2020 Q4 London Listed PLCs INDEX Results