Making The Electoral Commission’s website accessible to more people

The Electoral Commission is an independent body that oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. Like many public sector organisations, it needs to make sure its digital services and information can be accessed by everyone.

Working with Numiko, the Commission overhauled its website to make it easier to navigate and easier to understand. also made it quicker for teams across the organisation to update and publish content, particularly guidance.

With a focus on external users, the new website design was informed by user research conducted by the Commission and Numiko.

The challenge

As an independent source of guidance and expertise, the Commission needed its new website to meet the needs of a diverse range of users and provide information in an accessible, easy-to-use way.

Accessibility was also an important part of meeting its responsibilities under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the Equality Act.

Our solution

The Commission and Numiko partnered with Zoonou to assess the accessibility of the new website and identify where improvements were needed. Our approach combined technical assessment with real-world feedback from disabled users.

Our accessibility audit covered 20 Drupal templates and 10 key digital assets, including PDFs, Word documents and Excel files, with a particular focus on PDF accessibility and compliance with WCAG 2.1. We also assessed core user journeys using a range of assistive technologies to understand how people would experience the website in practice.

Working with RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People), we conducted disabled user testing with 12 participants with a range of access needs. Participants completed key tasks across the website, providing direct insight into usability barriers and real-world accessibility challenges.

The results

The Commission launched its new website with a clearer understanding of its accessibility and the barriers users could encounter.

The combination of technical assessment and disabled user testing gave the team practical findings they could act on, while direct feedback from users provided valuable insight into how people experienced the website in practice.

Accessibility is an ongoing process, and our relationship with the Commission has continued beyond the initial project. We continue to work with its digital team to build knowledge and strengthen inclusive design and accessibility practices.

'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