Achieving accessibility compliance: Northumberland County Council ‘s success story

In our rapidly evolving digital age, ensuring accessibility is not merely a matter of compliance, but a fundamental necessity that resonates with our commitment to inclusivity and equality.

This business case seeks to address the challenges faced by Northumberland County Council of making certain documents, communications, and online content accessible – as well as WCAG 2.2 compliant. It highlights their proactive approach and successful integration of Assist Pro to address these challenges.

As of 2018, it became a legal requirement that all documents published by councils should adhere to accessibility standards. This mandate prompted Northumberland County Council to address improving the accessibility of their vast repository of resources.

Currently their repository comprises of approximately 15,000 PDF documents on their website, alongside 800 .docx files and 500 .doc files, all of which must meet accessibility standards. Additionally, they regularly distribute information through digital letters, communications to residents, businesses, and internal staff members. This sheer volume of documents, presents a significant challenge in terms of ensuring accessibility for all, including individuals with disabilities.

In order to achieve accessibility compliance, Northumberland engaged an agile project framework too.

Summary of the key stages during the project:

• Discovery phase: Northumberland County Council initiated the project with a thorough discovery phase, aimed at examining their existing products and engaging with other Local Authorities (LAs) to gather insights and best practices.

• Multi-disciplinary team: To ensure the project’s success, Northumberland County Council dedicated a diverse and skilled team of five people – comprising experts from communications, IT, and training. This dedicated taskforce is passionate about making everything accessible for both citizens as well at their internal users.

• Pilot phases: To validate their approach and solution strategy, they conducted two crucial pilot phases. Initially, a small pilot was executed, involving five users who tested the accessibility features. Subsequently, they launched a business pilot that engaged 100 volunteers, allowing them to assess accessibility on a larger scale.

• Baseline survey: Before implementing accessibility improvements, they conducted a baseline survey to gauge the current level of accessibility compliance. This served as a benchmark for tracking progress.

• Accessibility awareness training: They organized four accessibility awareness training sessions for internal users.

• Assist pro integration: They incorporated the use of Assist Pro. This software assisted in identifying and addressing accessibility issues in their digital content.

• Bitesize training sessions: In addition to the initial training sessions, the taskforce provided ongoing bitesize training sessions to continuously upskill their staff.

• Feedback and support: To facilitate communication, a Teams channel served as a platform for feedback, troubleshooting, and sharing best practices.

• Post-pilot survey: At the end of the pilot phase, the survey was repeated to measure the improvements made in terms of accessibility compliance.

These events collectively represent their proactive and systematic approach to enhancing accessibility compliance, with the goal of ensuring that the digital content and communications are accessible to all.

What did Northumberland discover?

Throughout the process towards enhancing accessibility compliance, several key insights emerged:

• Rapid volunteer participation: There was a quick uptake in the call for volunteers, highlighting a strong interest within the organisation to address accessibility concerns promptly.

• User feedback: Feedback from all users involved in the pilot was consistently positive. They found the accessibility tool to be user-friendly.

• Informative feedback: The tool not only identified accessibility issues but also provided explanations, effectively serving as a training element by helping users understand why certain elements were not accessible.

• Importance of accessibility assurance: The assurance that the content is accessible emerged as a critical aspect, reaffirming the need to invest in accessibility measures.

• Desire for additional training: Users expressed a strong interest in further training, particularly regarding tools for accessibility checks, guidance on contrast, improving readability, and establishing a support network.

In summary, the post-pilot survey results indicate a notable increase in software adoption and positive perceptions of Assist Pro’s usability and impact. Users reported greater awareness and efforts toward improving accessibility, reflecting a positive shift in their approach to creating accessible content. The majority of respondents expressed a strong interest in continuing to use the software and supporting its purchase, recognising the potential benefits for all stakeholders.

By prioritising accessibility, Northumberland County Council is committed to providing content that’s inclusive for all, reinforcing their compliance, user satisfaction, and social responsibility. The lessons from this project will guide their path, ensuring a more accessible and inclusive digital environment for all stakeholders, addressing unique challenges along the way.