BSI rides on the crest of a wave of awards

BSI British Standards has won the category of Advertising, Promotion and Campaigns for the communications surrounding the launch of PAS 78 which outlines good practice in commissioning websites which are accessible and usable by disabled people. 

Wayne Drew, CEO of the IVCA said “The award has been given to BSI for promoting higher levels of web accessibility and increasing the understanding of new guidelines to those responsible for commissioning or maintaining public-facing websites.” The award is being presented to BSI at a ceremony at BAFTA attended by 200 guests and dignitaries including representatives of BSI’s primary partners in the project, the Disability Rights Commission and RNIB.

In addition, BSI has won the annual European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) awards for Best Brochure and Best Website Contribution that were presented at a conference on 14-15 September. Sarah Penny Communications Manager for CENELEC commented, "The Jury was impressed by the achievement of BSI especially in its aim at targeting SMEs. The brochure was highly creative. The jury was also impressed by the website contribution with its dynamic, colourful and agreeable layout, and the well structured information.”

Also at the 5th biennial European Systems Engineering Conference in Edinburgh on 18-20 September BSI won the prize for best scientific paper.  The paper entitled "The role of systems engineering in global standardization" positions BSI at the leading edge of new ideas and the award has implications for the future of standards which are quite far reaching.  The ideas in the paper will be published in several journals and newsletters worldwide.

Mike Low, Director of BSI British Standards said,”BSI is extremely proud to have won these awards.  Each of them represents a great deal of hard work for which we are delighted to have received this public and peer recognition. Before PAS 78, for example, 81 percent of websites surveyed failed to uphold the most basic accessibility guidelines and specifications, so it is most gratifying to see that the team’s success in spreading the message about the need for and availability of standards to address this important business and social issue has been acknowledged.”

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Editors' notes

The IVCA Clarion Awards were launched at the UK Parliament four years ago and are designed to acknowledge and promote creative, effective and inspirational media which deal responsibly with important social issues. CSR, sustainable development and social inclusion are at the heart of the awards - although any major issue can be recognised as long as it is dealt with responsibly.  Awards are presented for every media platform and range from mainstream film, theatre, television and radio to all aspects of corporate and public sector communications.  IVCA has a long (in excess of 60 years) history of recognising media excellence and previous IVCA award winners include such figures as Anita Roddick, Bob Geldof, Ridley Scott, Lord Attenborough, Sir Trevor McDonald, Lord Puttnam, Bob Philis, Anna Ford, and Moira Stuart.

Read more about the IVCA Clarion Awards

The CEN/CENELEC PR Awards are now in their second year. Open to all national members and affiliates of these standards making organisations, they are designed to promote and share best practice in communications across Europe. BSI is the only national standards body to have received more than one award per year and also won an award last year for its education website www.bsieducation.org[Decommisioned February 2016]

This years 5th biennial European Systems Engineering Conference was held in Edinburgh 18-20 September 2006. Paul McNeillis from the British Standards Institution and Jon Holt from Brass Bullet won best paper for co-writing the paper entitled "The role of systems engineering in global standardization".

BSI British Standards is one of the world’s leading national standards-making bodies. Part of the BSI Group, BSI British Standards develops standards and standardisation solutions to meet the needs of business and society. BSI works with government, businesses and consumers to represent UK interests and facilitate the production of British, European and international standards.

The NSSF is an initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), BSI, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service to provide a platform for increasing the awareness, use and understanding of standards and standardization in the UK. For further information on the NSSF please visit:www.nssf.info