The City of Cockburn’s accessibility compliant website is a finalist in the 2021 Australian Access Awards.
The City is up against some high-profile competition including the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Commonwealth Department of Social Services, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and GESB.
The website, which has been Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0/1 AA accredited since 2017, is a finalist in the Government Website of the Year category.
Held every two years by the Fremantle-based Centre for Accessibility Australia, the awards celebrate organisations that have implemented accessibility in their digital campaigns or resources.
City of Cockburn Digital Communications Officer Leezelle Cornejo said the City was WA’s only local government compliant with the W3C World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA conformance standard.
“The City is committed to being accessible and inclusive, and this includes our public website,” Ms Cornejo said.
“While we are committed to accessibility for people with disability, we are also striving to cater for the broader culturally and linguistically diverse community and those with low literacy.
“The City’s web team, which is a combination of internal business units, Communications and Business Systems, is dedicated to continuing the philosophy of keeping online information accessible at all times.
“The challenge is to maintain and continually improve the level of accessibility and our Website Governance and Content Management plan assists us to do this. The Plan details the frequency of reviews, maintenance, the governance team, website champions and their roles.”
The awards will be announced at an event at WA Maritime Museum in Fremantle on 19 November.