Aberdeen City Council’s website is top in Scotland

Gayle — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:06:00 GMT

Aberdeen City Council's website, built on the Activedition platfom, is the only local authority site in Scotland, and one of two in the UK, to be awarded the Accessibility+ mark from the Shaw Trust.

Any website carrying this mark has been tested by people with a wide range of disabilities and found to be totally accessible. The Shaw Trust web accreditation process is rigorous, with over 60 hours of testing by disabled web users.

Further success for the council's website is that it has been ranked top Scottish local authority website for performance and functionality by Sitemorse - the leading web auditing, bench-marking and certification service.

The website appears at number 22 in their league table of 460 UK local authority websites, scoring a total of nine out of 10 across a range of tests. The only other Scottish local authority in the top 50 comes in at number 46.

The council's website has been commended in this year's SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management) Better Connected 2009 survey of local authority websites. The website has been singled out as a 'Top Scottish Unitary Authority' because it meets five out of the nine criteria for the highest 'excellent' category. No Scottish site is rated excellent - in fact there are only eight sites out of over 460 in the UK which meet that standard.

The council was also commended in the SOCITM report for using best practice because it has the Shaw Trust accreditation.

Aberdeen City Council's e-Government manager, Ian Watt said: "To be given such high praise confirms our reputation as being a leading council site in Scotland. We are committed to developing the range of information and services available online and to ensure that they are accessible to all site users."

The council's e-Government team has also been working on making the website more user-friendly for those viewing it on mobile devices. The site has been upgraded and republished so it is easier for users on the move.

To view the site on a mobile phone or other mobile device simply go to the homepage http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk and the site will detect that the user is using a handheld device and adjust the pages to better fit your display.

Source: http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/CouncilNews/ci_cns/pr_websuccess_120309.asp

News Blog : Local Government, Activedition

Aberdeen City Council’s website is top in Scotland