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eAward 19 goes to WACA & REWE

On stage at the award ceremony at the T-Center: Martin Szelgrad (Report-Verlag), Katharina Proske (T-Systems), Klaus Höckner (Association in Support of the Blind and Visually Impaired), Christine Wahlmüller-Schiller (OCG), Alexander Prosser (OCG), Stefan Kleinhans, Walter Wersching (both RIAG Digital), Caroline Wallner-Mikl, Bettina Schlesinger, Marko Petrovic, Melanie Prinzinger, Julia Steiner, Nadja Groller, Elisabeth Waldherr, Tanja Simon, Alexander Hell (all REWE), Werner Rosenberger (WACA)
(c) Sela Krobath

EN Preisverleihung auf der Bühne im T-Center mit Martin Szelgrad (Report-Verlag), Katharina Proske (T-Systems), Klaus Höckner (Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs/OCG), Christine Wahlmüller-Schiller (OCG), Alexander Prosser (OCG), Stefan Kleinhans, Walter Wersching (beide RIAG Digital), Caroline Wallner-Mikl, Bettina Schlesinger, Marko Petrovic, Melanie Prinzinger, Julia Steiner, Nadja Groller, Elisabeth Waldherr, Tanja Simon, Alexander Hell (alle REWE), Werner Rosenberger (WACA)

Great success for all involved at WACA and REWE

On 31 January 2019, the WACA initiative with its certification body OCG (Austrian Computer Society) and REWE International AG were awarded the special prize “Accessibility in IT” at the eAward 19 for the project “Accessible Websites and Certification by WACA”. The eAward of the Austrian publishing company Report Verlag honours the best digitisation projects in the fields of business and administration. The award ceremony took place at the T-Center in Vienna and was attended by over 200 guests.

During the WACA pilot phase, we were able to develop and test the internal processes and the submission portal on existing websites of REWE International AG up to market maturity. This required enormous efforts on both sides. The result is impressive and the special prize underlines our commitment. Many thanks to all those involved in this extraordinary project.

Digitisation requires web accessibility – Accessible web content benefits everyone

Web accessibility means that everyone has access to information and services on the Internet. The number of people using a certain website can be greatly increased by adhering to criteria such as colour contrasts, keyboard operability or structured menu navigation. However, not only people with disabilities, but also search engines, IoT, Alexa & Co depend on web accessibility. In addition to the social aspects and legal requirements, compliance with web accessibility criteria also offers sustainable economic advantages. If accessibility is taken into consideration from the very beginning of a relaunch process, the additional effort involved is only slightly higher than for a standard website.

CSR officer at REWE Caroline Wallner-Mikl was excited about the award: “Receiving the eAward special prize for accessibility is a great honour for us and at the same time encourages us to have more websites certified. It is also a great recognition of the work of all those involved – programmers, agencies and website operators. The award underlines our ambition to be the leading innovator in e-commerce for food products”.

New WACA certificates for REWE:

In the course of the award ceremony, Alexander Prosser, financial officer of the OCG, issued 3 further WACA certificates to REWE Group for the following websites:

  • www.adeg.at
  • www.merkurmarkt.at
  • www.gemeinsam-nachhaltig.at

Univ. Prof. Alexander Prosser once again pointed out the great benefit and outreach that can be improved in many ways by making websites accessible: “In Austria alone, there are 300,000 people who are visually impaired or blind, and about 1.7 million people with temporary or permanent impairments. They all profit from web accessibility.”

eAward certificate: The organisers of the eAward 2019 are pleased to announce that the Austrian Computer Society has been awarded the special prize for Accessibility in IT in the category Social Responsibility for its project Accessible Websites of REWE International AG

eAward 19 - Urkunde