The new site, which is in line with the recommendations of the recent Disability Rights Commission (DRC) report, is one of the first sites in the UK to meet the exacting AAA standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The W3C AAA standard represents the highest level of accessibility compliance that a web site can achieve, and demonstrates that the Stockport site goes beyond the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The project to re-build from scratch, and re-launch the Stockport site was handled by RiverInteractive using a powerful yet simple-to-use content management system from Mediasurface. This has meant the Council is able to publish and manage the vital information its citizens need, in a timely and effective manner. The Stockport achievement has been all the more remarkable as the redesign of the Council's extensive web site was completed in just 10 weeks, making it not only one of the most accessible sites in the UK but also one of the fastest deployed.
The recent highly critical report by the DRC focused on the exclusion of disabled people from most web sites and claimed that 81 per cent of UK-based sites fall foul of accessibility standards for disabled users, leaving operators exposed to the threat of being sued. The Stockport site goes beyond these requirements using Browsealoud software to offer speech-enabled browsing to the visually impaired, access keys to enable easy browsing, skip navigation, making it easier to function within text only browsers, as well as offering a text-only version of the site with high-contrast text and background.
The Mediasurface system also repurposes content into multi-channel templates such as Digital TV and WAP enabling the site to reach further, thereby not excluding citizens without PC internet access in their homes. Services available through the site include paying council tax online, traffic and travel information, business directories, information on council services and local events. The site will eventually provide on-line access to hundreds of the authority’s services
Stockport purchased the Mediasurface Council Site Pack, a ready-to-roll, citizen-focused local authority solution which is designed to be fully compliant with all government standards and regulations. They also purchased the Mediasurface Knowledge Management Module, an advanced search and publishing tool that offers greater access and usability for users. For example if a citizen is searching for ‘rubbish’, the system will automatically know to connect this to information about litter and street cleansing.
Andrew Kirkham, Operational Head of the Council’s e-Services said “The Mediasurface Council Site Pack is an affordable solution that we knew would deliver everything we needed to make us compliant with current government regulatory standards. The solution places content into consistent local authority information categories. There were certain aspects that we needed to have on the site such as A-Z of services and a news section; the Site Pack delivers all of this in an already compliant package. It has provided our community with a unique level of accessibility for all users. We can now manage content and update rapidly and efficiently. Our site is certainly not perfect and further development and improvement is underway – but we have made a massive leap forwards. It has taken us from not even a poor single A rating straight to triple A”
Nick Bolton, Product Marketing Director at Mediasurface said: “The Project team at Stockport decided to set itself an incredibly tight deadline – just 10 weeks from purchase to launch and most of this time was taken up moving the content over from the old system. Mediasurface has once again proved to be a durable platform for building fully compliant, citizen friendly web applications on a fast timeline within an affordable budget. We are delighted to have been involved in this project and applaud RiverInteractive, a key partner, and the Council for the work they have done.”
Plans are also in place for further testing of the Stockport MBC site with disability user groups, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, and the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm).
The new regulations announced in the DDA will mean everybody with a presence on the web has to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to cater for the needs of the disabled web user. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published guidelines for recommended standards with conformance levels of A, AA and AAA, the latter being a prestigious accolade of true usability. A report by the Disabled Rights Commission issued in April 2004 found over 80 percent of web sites were “next to impossible for some disabled people to use” and of 1,000 surveyed not one managed to meet the W3C AAA compliancy.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 26.05.2005
