The SDS blog

TikTok might not be a platform that you would think of when it comes to accessibility, however, perhaps it should be.

The pandemic shifted our ways of working. Many employees are now working remotely full time or “hybrid” working, where part of their time is spent remote and part in the office.

As the restrictions on where we work are lifting, lots of us are reflecting on the ways we used to work and how we will work in the future.

There are around 10,000 local parish, town, community, and neighbourhood councils in England. These work hard to provide services that meet the needs of their residents and improve community well-being.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) issued an accessibility monitoring report detailing the work they have undertaken in 2021 testing public sector websites.

Many changes have taken place over the last few years and so the aim of this project is to explore whether current processes are still fit for purpose, whether they can be digitised or indeed whether they are still needed.

Kent Housing Group recently won a bid from Kent County Council to support landlords who are suffering rent arrears problems that have built up as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both Waverley Borough Council and Tandridge District Council required some user testing on their waste forms. Whilst the more common usability testing was carried out, checking for functionality and looking at the technical aspects, SDS also user tested for digital...

Many of our partner organisations have been working hard to create a culture of accessibility throughout their organisations. Sevenoaks, Central Bedfordshire and Tonbridge and Malling have all asked us to help with this by delivering several virtual, live and interactive...

SDS have been delivering live and interactive training courses to Project Managers across Ashford Borough Council introducing them to agile ways of working.

SDS have reviewed the East Sussex Building Control Partnership’s business processes, to explore ways to enhance customer experience and improve efficiency.

Waverley Borough Council approached Smarter Digital Services (SDS) to assist them with conducting user testing on their new website.

When Southern Building Control Partnership (SBCP) decided to build a new website, they took advantage of a variety of services offered by Smarter Digital Services, to create and build a website that would cater for their customers’ needs and allow...

Kent Homechoice commissioned SDS to develop a new and updated version of the Kent Homechoice Homelessness Triage Tool.

SDS have developed an e-learning course on how to create accessible Word and PDF documents for online publication.

SDS recently delivered two live and interactive courses on user research and customer journey mapping for Wealden District Council staff via MS Teams.

SDS outline ways to tailor your text messages to make them more effective.

Our Voice Discovery Research explores the current uses of smart speakers and the potential benefits of using smart speakers to access council services.

SDS has compiled a list of useful applications for SMS notifications in local government.

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.