Making Brighton & Hove City Council's digital services more accessible

Brighton & Hove City Council provides local services including council tax, planning, parking and waste collection. Like many public sector organisations, making those services easy to access online is an important part of how it serves residents.

The Council’s Digital First team was transforming its public-facing website, making it easier and faster for residents to find and access local services online.

Accessibility from the start

The Digital First team wanted to build a website that was consistent, familiar and accessible to as many people as possible.

Built across Drupal and Mendix, the new website needed to provide a consistent experience as people moved between the two platforms. It also needed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA and the requirements of the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations.

The Council needed to demonstrate the progress it was making too. Evidence of its accessibility work had to be documented through the independently reviewed Socitm Better Connected programme.

But the ambition went beyond compliance. The team wanted accessibility to become part of how the website was designed, built and maintained. That meant giving its development and content teams practical guidance they could use throughout the project, alongside insight into how disabled people actually experienced the website.

Building accessibility into delivery

We started with an on-site consultancy session to understand the project and shape the right approach. From there, we combined an accessibility audit with training and disabled user testing.

Rather than waiting until the website was finished, we worked alongside the Council's agile development process. At the end of each sprint, we assessed the latest work against WCAG 2.1, verified fixes from previous sprints and tested key journeys using a range of assistive technologies.

This gave the team accessibility feedback while there was still time to act on it and helped keep accessibility part of the development process as the new website evolved.

We also delivered tailored accessibility training for the people creating and maintaining the website. Content teams explored areas including copy and imagery, while development workshops covered website structure, HTML semantics and accessibility considerations beyond WCAG.

Finally, disabled user testing brought another perspective to the work. People with a range of access needs completed key journeys across the website, giving the Council direct insight into barriers and usability issues that technical assessment alone might not uncover.

Building knowledge that lasts

Accessibility became part of the Council's development process rather than a final check before launch.

The combination of ongoing assessment, assistive technology testing and disabled user testing gave the team both technical findings and real-world insight to act on. The Council was able to demonstrate its work against the relevant accessibility requirements and publish its accessibility statement by the September 2019 deadline.

Just as importantly, the work built capability within the Council. Training and ongoing collaboration gave its content and development teams practical knowledge they could apply as the website changed and new content was created.

The relationship continued beyond the initial launch. We went on to work with the Council across its wider network of digital products as it prepared them for the September 2020 accessibility regulations deadline.