Springworks

MK Hearing Dogs

web design

The Milton Keynes & District Fundraising Branch of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People wanted a web site to support their newly formed branch. The site features latest news from the branch, including details of fundraising events past and present, talks and social acitvities. It also features information about how volunteers can help the branch in its fundraising efforts.

Short profiles of the hearing dogs placed with branch members, plus puppies being socialised prior to receiving their sound work training, can also be found. A featured hearing dog chosen randomly from this section appears on the home page of the site.

The site is built using the Textpattern content management system and is kept up to date by one of the branch members. It regularly appears on the first page of Google search results for “hearing dogs” and often generates enquiries from people who are searching for the charity’s main web site.

Early in 2009, the site was extended by adding a password-protected section with rotas for the forthcoming fundraising events. Branch members are given usernames and passwords to login to this section and can add or remove their names from the volunteers’ rota simply by clicking a button. They can also discuss any issues surrounding the event using Textpattern’s commenting system. This has all worked very smoothly, especially considering that many of the branch members are not particularly computer literate.

Overall the web site has helped to maintain a strong sense of community amongst the branch members and has undoubtedly helped make the Milton Keynes Fundraising Branch one of the most successful in the country.

TECHNOLOGIES: XHTML, CSS, PHP

URL: http://mkhearingdogs.org.uk/

DATE: May 2007