Website climbs rankings as it gets over a million views
LEICESTERSHIRE County Council’s website has been ranked the most accessible among all county councils.
The website climbed 34 places to be placed ninth overall out of more than 400 councils whose sites were audited as part of the Silktide Index, a public list of websites graded for accessibility.
Between April and June this year, more than a million visits were made to the council’s website.
The council’s website has been more popular than ever during the coronavirus pandemic as people need clear, transparent information.
The Index has been published following changes to the law last year which means that public service websites must meet certain accessibility standards.
The council identified where improvements could be made and made changes to a number of areas including:
■ Using assistive technology to improve documents for disabled people
■ The layout and design of the website and the language used
■ Improving the ease identifying links and forms
■ Responding to problems Councillor Byron Rhodes, cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “I am delighted that our efforts to of improve accessibility for all of our residents is being officially recognised.
“There is an ever-increasing demand from residents to get access to information and services digitally and virtually and we are rising to the challenge.
“Creating a better experience for people is one of our priorities and we will continue to work towards our goal of ensuring that people with disabilities find our site accessible and usable.”
The audits, which are carried out on a monthly basis, take samples of up to 125 web pages from each local authority website, and those pages are tested for around 200 key criteria.
Tests include whether web pages work on a mobile and if there is good colour contrast. The accessibility score looks at how accessible a website is, as measured against the latest international standard for web accessibility, WCAG 2.1.
Leicestershire County Council achieved a score of 95 per cent and the index is available to view at https://index.silktide.com/uk-councils/leaderboard