New open-source Tipperary County Council website ranks first for accessibility
The new Tipperary County Council website has ranked number one for accessibility among local authority platforms.
The new site, which went live recently, is open source, a first for local authorities in Ireland. Edev Project Leader Ruth Maher told last week’s sitting of Tipperary County Council:
“So far, it’s been well received,” said Ms Maher.
OPEN SOURCE
Ms Maher told councillors that when researching website designs, her team found that local authorities spend between €100,000 and €250,000.
But they felt that could be saved by using an open-source platform. They chose LocalGov Drupal, a publicly-owned web publishing service used by 33 local authorities in the UK.
Tipperary County Council is the first local authority to use the platform outside the UK. Following her presentation, Ms Maher gave elected members a demo of the site.
Some of the new features include an improved search, which Ms Maher said is “learning all the time”.
There is also now the ability to find sections by county area and has made it easier to report an issue in your area.
PHASE TWO
The site is now live. But the team is still hard at work. As accessibility was a top priority, they are now preparing to carry out an audit.
They are closing broken links from the previous site. And they are making sure all information is up to date and everything still looks good.
Once all of that is done, the website is to be built upon. Ms Maher said her team is building an interactive FAQ section.
They are also integrating the other council websites like Tipperary Tourism, the library service and Shop Local.
Ms Maher said they are also overhauling the local authority's social media and improving mobile updates.
WEBSITE
Ms Maher said the Tipperary County Council website is popular.
Typically, it sees between 1.1 million to 1.4 million page views per year.
But this was higher during the pandemic as the public kept up to date on changes.
The top five most visited pages are (1) planning, (2) vacancies, (3) swimming pools, (4) housing and (5) grants.
Following her presentation, Tipperary County Council Chief Executive Joe MacGrath thanked and complemented Ms Maher and her team on a job well done.
“You have to appreciate how when you take on a site like a local authority, it’s a huge amount of work,” said Mr McGrath.