Giving voters confidence through an accessible digital service

The client

The Electoral Commission oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. It plays a vital role in making sure voters have confidence in the democratic system. The Commission wants everyone to be able to access the information they need about how elections are run, so it is committed to improving its digital services.

Working with Numiko, an award-winning digital agency, the Commission overhauled its website to make it easier to navigate and easier to understand. The new content management system (CMS) reduced the amount of time it takes to update and publish content, particularly guidance content, increasing the entire organisation’s efficiencies. With a focus external users, the new website design was informed by user research conducted by the Commission and Numiko.

The challenge

Acting as an independent centre of guidance and expertise, the Commission wanted to demonstrate that the new website meets its diverse range of users’ needs effectively and its information is provided in an easy to use, accessible way; thereby ensuring it complies to Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the Equality Act.

Our solution

In an effort to ensure regulatory compliance and an accessible user experience, the Commission and Numiko looked to Zoonou’s wide range of accessibility testing service to thoroughly assess the sites accessibility. Proving to be a natural fit into the Commission and Numiko’s approach; our solution focused on a combination of expert assessments and user feedback.

Covering 20 Drupal templates and 10 digital assets – including PDFs, Word and Excel documents – the assessments focused on compliance to WCAG 2.1. In parallel to this, user journeys were also assessed across a range of assistive technologies.

In collaboration with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind People), we arranged for 12 users, with a variety of accessibility requirements, to provide feedback on the site while trying to complete a number of different user journeys.

The results

In partnership with Numiko and Zoonou, the Commission launched its new website confident it is taking proactive steps to ensure a continued positive, accessible user experience. Understanding that creating an accessible digital space is an ongoing process, we are proud to continue our partnership with the Commission by working with its digital team to further their skills in inclusive design and accessibility knowledge base.

'The insight into user behaviours that Zoonou provided were extremely valuable in helping us develop an accessible new site. We’re committed to putting user needs at the heart of our digital communications, and our ongoing work with Zoonou is crucial to helping us achieve this ambition.'

- Tim Crowley, Head of Digital Communications at The Electoral Commission

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