ByDonna O'Toole
Phew, what a month August turned out to be. We celebrated our 9th birthday as a business, Donna guest starred on the brilliant Unstoppable Mindset podcast with Michael Hingson, and we attended a very special Diary of a CEO event, all on top of continuing to support clients and our partners to get results in…
ByDonna O'Toole
We’ve made it to September! For lots of people it’s back to school time, and back to routine, as we move into the final quarter of the year. No matter where you are in your awards journey, now is the perfect time to stop and reflect on the year so far (what have you achieved…
ByDonna O'Toole
We’ve seen firsthand, time and time again, that winning an award can transform a business. It brings visibility, credibility, and a deep sense of validation. But here’s a sad truth: Far too many brilliant businesses never even apply. Not because they’re not worthy. But because the path to recognition feels exclusive, unclear, or simply out…
ByDonna O'Toole
Looking back on a productive quarter and celebrating with our clients and partners. From hosting our quarterly team meeting, to seeing our clients soar, and connecting with our awards community at events, last month was a true reflection of what it means to grow together. Here’s what we’ve been up to. Reflecting on Q1 Growth…
ByDonna O'Toole
9 Years, Thousands of Entries, and One Winning Formula that WORKS Nine years ago, I founded August Recognition with one goal: to help great brands and people win valuable recognition that helps them to achieve their goals. Since then, we’ve crafted thousands of entries, and supported hundreds of entrants across every industry you can imagine….
ByDonna O'Toole
We are thrilled to partner with leading awards management software AwardStage. They are experts in helping to build awards programmes that celebrate excellence, across all sectors. If you’ve ever thought about launching your own awards programme, this Summer might be the perfect time. And AwardStage have some top tips to help you get started… Seize…
ByDonna O'Toole
What does it really look like to win in 2025? We’re halfway through the year and with no signs of stopping, 2025 is shaping up to be our biggest year yet. June alone saw 75+ awards projects delivered: from bespoke award strategies, standout entries, and impactful presentations, to beautifully created supporting documents designed to win….
ByDonna O'Toole
Summer is here (finally!), and while you may be slowing down, your recognition strategy doesn’t have to. This season brings a welcome change of pace. Teams are taking time out, inboxes are quieter, and for some there’s finally space to breathe, even if just a little. This time of year can be a great time…
ByDonna O'Toole
The TWO big mistakes you might be making when entering awards If you’ve ever entered an award and not won, it can be really disappointing and you can find yourself asking ‘why?’ From years of experience judging award entries, the reason for not winning typically isn’t that the product, initiative or service isn’t award-worthy… Entries…
ByDonna O'Toole
Outstanding Client Wins, Prioritising Team Culture and Championing Royal Recognition May was a busy, busy month for us here at August. We are well into the awards season (this month alone we have submitted 50+ awards projects!) And June is turning out to be even busier. Outside of supporting our clients, we’ve been celebrating the…
ByDonna O'Toole
Every week, I hear from businesses who’ve received a mysterious email or direct message on social media telling them they’ve ‘won’ an award or been ‘rated one of the top providers’ in their industry. It sounds flattering, but here’s the reality: you haven’t entered anything, you haven’t been judged by an expert panel and you…
ByDonna O'Toole
Why this prestigious recognition can transform your business growth, credibility, and future. Why Do the King’s Awards Matter So Much? It’s not just another business award.It’s a mark of excellence from the King, and a seal of approval reserved only for the most outstanding UK organisations. The King’s Awards for Enterprise are among the most…
End of content
End of content
Subscribe for alerts on awards entry opening & closing dates, news on nominees & winners, and tips & tricks for your awards entry strategy.
August Awards
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to