National Rail customers struggle to book after website turned grey for Philip

The website went greyscale as a tribute following Prince Philip’s death (Picture: National Rail/Getty)

National Rail briefly turned its website to greyscale as a tribute to Prince Philip – but reversed the decision after some people couldn’t read it.

The website was meant to go grey as a mark of respect to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on Friday aged 99, but it ended up being criticised as inaccessible for those who are partially sighted.

Disability charity Scope spoke out against the move, alongside the Royal National Institute of Blind People and the Partially Sighted Society.

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group, which runs the site, had put it back to normal by 10am this morning, writing on Twitter: ‘The National Rail website has been temporarily greyscaled as a mark of respect following the death of HRH Duke of Edinburgh.

‘We are listening to feedback about how people are using the website and are making further changes today to make it more accessible to all our customers.’

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A staff member had earlier written a reply to a passenger asking if they could change the website back to its original look: ‘Unfortunately, I do not believe there is currently.

They added: ‘I too have been struggling to read while it is coloured differently.’

Keith Barrow, who is the editor of the Today’s Railways Europe magazine, tweeted: ‘This is just too much @nationalrailenq. @CrossCountryUK website is the same.

‘A lot of people struggle with low contrast text – it would be good if the rail industry could pay its respects without needlessly discriminating against some of its customers.’

One user wrote on Twitter: ‘Erm….can you check with your accessibility people next time please. I shouldn’t have to go into the Developer Tools and change your CSS to be able to use your website.’

Scope tweeted: ‘Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought, even in a period of national mourning. Nobody should be locked out of vital services and information.’

Anita Plant, chief executive of the Partially Sighted Society told the Evening Standard that greyscale ‘generally does not work for people with sight loss’.

The site has since been changed back to normal after criticism (Picture: National Rail)

She said: ‘Having looked at the site I can see how people with sight loss will find this difficult for the following reasons — there are no accessibility options to increase the text size or change the colour contrast.

‘The white text on the grey background is incredibly hard to see for someone with a visual impairment and having text on pictures is confusing and the images themselves are visually confusing.’

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Robin Spinks, innovation lead at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), added: ‘Good web design and adherence to inclusive design standards is a must for all digital content creators.

‘Appropriate colour contrast makes sense for every person accessing a website and is especially beneficial for people with sight loss.’

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