Learn how GDS is monitoring accessibility compliance
Website accessibility regulations came into force on 23 September 2018. This means that public sector bodies have a legal obligation to meet accessibility requirements for their websites.
Simplifying IVR routing and scripting
Ashford Borough Council commissioned SDS to work on their existing IVR system to ensure that users were getting the best experience from the service provided.
Completely free COVID19 support bot
SDS recently caught up with Paul Shepherd, CEO of We Build Bots, to find out how they are supporting Local Authorities and the wider Public Sector with their COVID 19 bot.
3 months free access to JAWS, Zoomtext or Fusion for everyone
JAWS reads aloud what’s on the PC screen and gives the user a unique set of intelligent tools for navigating and accesses Web pages and all screen content.
Sitemorse report on accessibility
You may recently have seen a report issued by automated accessibility checker Sitemorse on Accessibility across local authority websites. The report sets out the position as at Q4/2019 across the sector and examines how local authorities are managing the timeline to achieve compliance with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations by September 2020.
LGA Case Study – Digital Housing
The Local Government Association (LGA) have published a case study of work Smarter Digital Services undertook for Kent Homechoice to deliver the online housing pre-assessment form, full application form and homelessness triage tool.
LGA Digital Housing Programme
The homelessness triage tool has been updated to comply with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, and is now being used by all local authorities in Kent.
Press Release: SDS news article for the Public Sector Executive
Catherine Bright, Smarter Digital Services (SDS) manager, explains how a partnership of 12 councils across Kent and Surrey are jointly funding a responsive, independent, not-for-profit consultancy to help them to achieve their digital ambitions.
Really useful workshops – User Research at the Discovery Phase
In July we held the first of our Really Useful Workshops at Swale House which was attended by collegues from several of our partners. This first session – User Research at the Discovery Phase – demonstrated how important it is to speak to your users/customers at the beginning of the project.
SDS attend the SOCITM conference
The SDS Team were invited to attend the Spring Socitm Conference in London on 27th April. The conference involved a variety of guest speakers from across the ICT sector, local public services and private sector partners. The conference offered a great platform for us to see and catch up with our existing partners (always nice to see some friendly faces!) as well as offering us the opportunity to meet and chat with other representatives, not only from the public sector, to forge new relationships.