OVERVIEW
When Access Your Life came to Inkfire, they weren’t looking for another website company. They were looking for a team they could trust.
After years of disappointing experiences, significant financial investment, and a website that had become difficult to manage and ultimately no longer fit for purpose, they needed a fresh start. As a respected disabled-led organisation supporting thousands of people across the UK, their website needed to reflect the quality, credibility, and accessibility of the work they were already doing every day.
Working closely with the Access Your Life team, we rebuilt their website from the ground up, creating a secure, accessible, and easy-to-manage platform designed around their needs rather than forcing them to adapt to complicated systems. The result was a website that not only improved visibility and engagement but restored confidence in their digital presence and gave them a platform capable of supporting their community for years to come.
This project demonstrates what can happen when accessibility, trust, and genuine collaboration sit at the heart of a digital project.
THE CHALLENGE
When Access Your Life approached Inkfire, they were tired. Not just of their website, but of the whole experience that came with having it.
They had been repeatedly misled by different companies over a period of years, each promising solutions that they never quite delivered. Thousands of pounds had been spent on systems that didn’t meet their needs, were difficult to manage, and ultimately left them worse off than before. At one point, their website was hacked and they were left entirely in the lurch without a way to fix the issue, without investing yet more finances into a site that never did truly work, even before being hacked.
Their online presence within search results was poor and after so many bad experiences, they had reached the point where they were actively avoiding putting time and energy into their website at all. As a small team, working largely in a charitable capacity, this simply wasn’t something they could afford to continuously lose time and money on.
WHAT WASN’T WORKING
The biggest issue wasn’t just the technical, although that was a part.
Previous providers hadn’t really listened. They hadn’t taken the time to understand how Access Your Life works, who they serve, or why accessibility matters so deeply to their community. Promises were made and not kept, and the systems delivered were convoluted and exhausting to manage day-today.
The impact on the AYL was very real:
- Ongoing stress
- Loss of confidence
- Reputation damage
- Time and energy drained trying to fix things that shouldn’t have been broken
Making simple changes to the website took hours, and they had no support to do so. This meant that even when supposedly functioning ‘at its best’ the website was out of date, featured incorrect information and overall wasn’t serving their audience.
Access Your Life needed more than a new website. They needed reliability, security, and a partner they could trust.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
From the very beginning, three things were clear.
- Accessibility had to be central to the brand.
- The website had to be reliable and secure.
- Above all, they needed to feel listened to and understood.
As much as we wanted the site to be beautiful, we also wanted it to be focused on creating systems that genuinely worked for their disabled-led team and reflect the trust their community already had in them.
OUR APPROACH
We slowed things down.
We listened properly to what had gone wrong before and what Access Your Life actually needed, not what someone else thought they should have. We translated their vision into something practical, secure, and sustainable. We started with the basics, and built up to elements that they wished for, but didn’t know if it was possible to achieve.
That meant:
- Rebuilding the website from the ground up
- Putting proper security measures in place at all touchpoints, such as forms and integrations
- Creating a backend system that was easy for the whole team to manage
- Making sure the site reflected the credibility and trust they hold within the disabled community.
We wanted to make sure that the team had as much as put throughout the design process as possible, while also taking some of the uncertainty away that been created through systems that didn’t work in the past.
WHAT CHANGED
After the rebuild, the difference was immediate.
Access Your Life quickly regained momentum in regards to the impact of their online presence. Their website began performing strongly, receiving around 20,000 impressions within the first month after launch, with regular messages coming in through the site and an outpouring of appreciation for the new site. Feedback from the community was overwhelmingly positive, with many people commenting on how clear, accessible, and easy the site felt to use.
Most importantly, the website finally matched the quality of the work they do. Instead of avoiding their digital presence, they’ve been able to use it as a tool to grow, connect, and support their community more effectively.
In the months after launch, we supported AYL with further bug fixes, tweaking accessibility and getting their site truly up to a point where it functions beautifully on a day-to-day basis.
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS
Access Your Life is one of the most trusted voices in the disabled community, particularly for their honest reviews and feedback on mobility aids. People rely on them to make informed decisions that affect their independence and daily lives.
Having a website that reflects that trust isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s essential to aid them in building their brand.
THE OUTCOME
- A secure, accessible, easy-to-manage website
- Improved visibility and engagement
- Renewed confidence in their digital presence
- A platform that supports, rather than hinders, their work
“For us, this project is a perfect example of what happens when accessibility, trust, and listening come first. We couldn’t be prouder of the end result or the timeline in which we achieved such a phenomenal project within!”
Lauren – Co-Founder, Access Your Life
