An improved council website has been launched to make services more accessible than ever for Hertsmere’s residents, businesses and communities.
The look and feel of Hertsmere Borough Council’s website – www.hertsmere.gov.uk - has been refreshed and upgraded to improve access for all our communities, enable easier browsing and use on smartphones.
Since the new website launched in early December, our accessibility rating has jumped from 74 per cent to 94 per cent. This means people who use screen readers or with visual impairments are able to more fully use our website and access our services.
Cllr Jeremy Newmark, Leader of the Council, said: "The council website is such an important tool for Hertsmere’s residents, businesses and communities to access a broad range of services - from checking the locations of our award-winning parks, submitting a planning application, to paying bills and finding out about waste and recycling collections in our borough.
We have been working hard to improve our website so that it is a user-friendly, valuable resource for all our communities, designed for how people access our services now. This means it not only looks and feels better, but it’s also more accessible to people with visual impairments as well those visiting our site on their smartphones, which is how more and more people access our services."
Recent improvements across the website include ensuring our PDFs are accessible, making tables responsive on all devices, designing all pages to be compatible with mobile devices, updating copy and improving layout design to ensure pages are screen reader friendly.
The council worked with our supplier, Zengenti, to become the first council to launch its Contensis for Councils product. Hertsmere's website is driven by Contensis, Zengenti's headless Digital Experience Platform (DXP). In just seven weeks, we were able to relaunch our website by using our new all-inclusive website product, Contensis for Councils. The product has been mindfully developed to help local authorities to strengthen their accessibility compliance, and provide user-friendly access to vital public information and services.
Stef Robinson, Client Account Manager at Zengenti, said: "We're thrilled to continue our collaborative partnership with Hertsmere Borough Council, and that they are the first council to use our Contensis for Councils product for their new website. We look forward to continuing our work together to evolve the platform and support the council to continually improve their digital accessibility and online presence."
