Spade is the first French-speaking communications agency in Belgium’s Wallonia-Brussels Federation to be recognised as an AnySurfer provider (in 2013).

On the AnySurfer, website, you can read:

AnySurfer service providers have demonstrated their ability to build accessible sites. Working with AnySurfer offers advantages for both the providers and their customers.

This means that all our processes and tools have been assessed and recognised as offering the guarantees required by the label.

This designation enables us to assure our customers that we have all the skills and technical tools required to develop accessible websites. Where appropriate, we can also guarantee that these sites will be eligible for the label, and we can support our clients throughout the certification process.

12.8% of the Belgian population is disabled, 7 to 10% is colour-blind and 17% is over 65. The legislator (regional, federal and European) has established a legal framework to combat discrimination, including indirect discrimination. Despite this, only 12.6% of websites are considered to be “accessible”… and the rest are potentially missing out on a large number of users.

So there can be many reasons for labelling. For Spade, the decisive criterion was the notion of quality. The AnySurfer label, by focusing on the accessibility of information (information for anyone, even those with disabilities), puts in place a series of guidelines to ensure that the website is beyond reproach:

• A clean, valid code that allows the use of recent, cutting-edge technologies
• Content that is easy to read on different media: PCs, smartphones, tablets, but also Braille bars, text-to-speech tools, etc.
• Content that can be easily indexed by search engines and shared on social networks.
• The use of CMS (Content Management System) recognised for the quality of their publishing tools.

Are you looking for information about obtaining the AnySurfer label for your site?

Contact us. We can carry out an initial audit of the current state of your site to assess the steps you need to take to obtain the label. We can also train your editorial team to produce quality content that is accessible to all, using the content editing tools that we can recommend and deploy for you.

Our eco-design report has led us to make browsing our sites as anonymous as possible (few sites with areas requiring user accounts). Since the implementation of the GDPR in Europe, we have also gradually migrated the majority of our online services to European solutions. We encourage our partners to use European and/or local digital services as much as possible. An example of an online service favoured for this reason

We work with a number of organisations that promote balanced and healthy use of digital technologies, respectful and responsible behaviour and the promotion of practices such as the fight against misinformation, hateful content and online manipulation.

A few examples of collaborations:

• Garance asbl and the prevention of online sexual harassment
• L’Ilôt, a support service for women in precarious situations (awareness-raising project Parcours de Mina)
• CPAS Evere and the Digital Buddies project on digital accessibility for senior citizens
• Amnesty International Belgium, which fights daily against disinformation and for human rights