Oct 28, 2025
When Mental Health First Aid England approached Sight Matters to test their new digital learning materials, it marked an exciting step forward for our growing accessibility testing service.
MHFA England is a social enterprise with a powerful purpose and vision — together they create mentally healthy workplaces where people, communities, and business thrive and a nation where everyone's mental health matters. Their course materials play a crucial part in achieving that goal, helping thousands of learners across workplaces, schools, and communities to build confidence in supporting others.
But MHFA England also recognised that true inclusion means ensuring their courses are accessible to everyone — including people who are blind or visually impaired. That’s where Sight Matters came in.
Testing took place at Sight Matters’ Corrin Court centre in Douglas. A panel of experienced blind testers, all confident screen reader users, explored MHFA England’s learning materials.
Guided by the Sight Matters team, they tested accessibility, usability, and navigational flow — identifying not just what met accessibility standards, but what worked best in real-life learning environments.
The sessions also provided MHFA England with the opportunity to observe users interact directly with their materials, seeing first-hand how blind learners experience training content.
MHFA England described the sessions as “invaluable”:
“We can confidently describe our new digital learning course as accessible to people who use a screen reader. We’ve been able to see which of our documents could be used by blind people on our courses and which couldn’t. Reaching all people, regardless of their access needs, is really important for us.”
The organisation’s team noted that the experience reaffirmed their commitment to inclusion and saved valuable time by showing precisely where accessibility work was most needed — and where it wasn’t.
For Sight Matters, this work highlights the real-world benefits of putting lived experience at the centre of accessibility testing. By working directly with blind and visually impaired testers, organisations gain authentic insight into how their materials perform in practice, not just in theory.
It’s a model that creates impact on several levels:
For clients: improved accessibility, better learner experiences, and greater confidence in their digital materials.
For testers: meaningful, paid opportunities to share their expertise and shape more inclusive products.
For the community: greater awareness of accessibility as a vital part of equality and good design.
Speaking about her experience, Samantha Ash, one of the testers who worked with MHFA England, said:
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with MHFA England, testing their resources for the most up to date accessibility so that I could help others who were thinking of attending the courses if they were blind and using screen reading software. It meant that I could ensure that they had fully accessible courses and technology that would enable them to carry out work from their workbooks, without having to ask for help."
The success of this project with MHFA England demonstrates the potential of Sight Matters’ accessibility testing as a sustainable, inclusive service.
Building on these foundations, we are continuing to refine the offer and plan to expand our reach to help more businesses, charities, and public bodies across the Isle of Man and beyond ensure their digital content is accessible to everyone.
This initiative is part of our broader commitment to promoting independence, inclusion, and opportunity for blind and visually impaired people — empowering our members to play an active role in shaping a more accessible world.
Or, in the words of tester Juan Greggor:
"Accessibility testing with Sight Matters gives me the opportunity to give direct feedback to organisations about how I use and access their products.
I’ve lost count of the amount of emails that I’ve sent to Webmasters because a button on their website has not been labelled, or there’s a link that doesn’t work.
Access means different things to different people, and with the program provided by Sight Matters, it means organisations can be in touch with the users on the ground and see in real time how their products are being interacted with.
I am extremely grateful for all of the organisations that have taken part in the program, and to Sight Matters for providing it."
We’re always open to hearing from organisations who want to make their digital services and materials more inclusive.
Email peter@sightmatters.im or call 674727 to find out more.
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