Introduction
First launched in December 1995, the County’s website is comprised of thousands of web pages representing approximately 70 County agencies. In addition, there are numerous interactive web applications that visitors to the site can use to conduct business with the County.
The Office of Public Communications (OPC) is responsible for establishing policy, content development, information management, design services, and quality assurance for the County’s internet and intranet websites.
Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) is responsible for programming interactive applications, including those required for transactions, and for the management of the infrastructure (servers and communication lines).
The County’s internet website address is
Broward.org and the County’s intranet website address is
BrowardEmployee.org. All County agencies must coordinate their website and linkage to any web application(s) activities, including the purchase of additional domain names, through OPC. The policy and standards apply to both the internet and intranet websites and include internally and externally developed applications made available to site visitors.
These standards apply to all County agencies unless an exception has been approved by OPC. For purposes of these policies and standards, a “ County agency” refers to any County agency under the Broward County Board of County Commissioners including advisory boards and committees. The term “County agency website” refers to an internet or intranet website operated by or for a County agency, including those websites operated on behalf of a County agency by other public or private entities.
The Broward County Website policies and standards build upon the following standards:
- Website usability principles and techniques set forth by the Federal Web Managers Council, of the Interagency Committee on Government Information (ICGI), as one of the recommended best practices. Usability Best Practices helps ensure a Website meets users’ needs.
- Website standards for accessible design set forth by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Title II Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Website Accessibility Best Practices under Title II of the ADA apply to state and local government websites.
- Web content accessibility guidelines as provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities.
Usability
Broward County is committed to making our website(s) usable to the widest possible audience to ensure easy access to County information and services for all, including people with disabilities.
As a County, we utilize the internet to offer the public information about County government, programs and activities. We also offer convenient access to public record searches, ePay, eRegistration a wide variety of other County services. The Broward County website is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The County also offers BrowardEmployee.org as an enterprise intranet site to County agencies and employees. Agencies are encouraged to maintain a BrowardEmployee.org site when they have employee specific information or resources to share.
OPC and ETS have developed policy and standards for the construction of the web content and online services available to the public and to County employees. These standards help ensure usability and accessibility.
As defined by Usability.gov, usability “measures the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system—whether a website, a software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device.”
Visits to government websites have grown steadily and will continue to grow in the future. As of early 2018, over 55% of visitors access Broward.org via mobile devices and this percentage is increasing.
Through a consistent application of the County’s branded look and feel, information architecture and interactive experiences, with a mobile-first focus, including on agency sites, content creation and presentation as well as a consistent approach to software applications, we hope to ensure a high quality user experience. This is accomplished through use of a standardized master page, page layout templates and style options when editing content, as well as comprehensive training and guidelines. There is also a quality assurance process for the creation, review, and approval of content.
Accessibility
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title II, Chapter 5, mandates that state and local governments provide qualified individuals with disabilities equal access to their programs, services, or activities unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of their programs, services or activities or would impose an undue burden.
In order to ensure that the County website(s) have accessible features for people with disabilities, Broward County Web Publishers are required to use the steps outlined in this document.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 provides a three-prong definition for the term “disability” with respect to an individual:
- a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual;
- a record of such an impairment;
- or being regarded as having such an impairment.
Individuals with disabilities, including but not limited to the traditional disabilities such as blindness, deafness and mobility impairments, are often faced with online barriers. Many individuals with disabilities use assistive technology that enables them to use computers. Specialized programs and/or devices, such as screen readers and text enlargement software, enable these individuals to use a computer.
While using assistive technology to access the web, they are confronted with unnecessary obstacles as a result of poorly designed websites. Problems often occur because web contributors assume that everyone sees and accesses a web content in the same way. This assumption can frustrate assistive technology users.
Broward County’s commitment is to ensure that its website is in full compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). As a result, all agencies must adhere to following standards and must take reasonable steps to design and develop websites that are accessible to people with disabilities as well as those without disabilities.
Broward County web designers, developers, and content providers must become familiar with the standards to achieve universal web usability and accessibility. This also includes contracted third party contributors. These standards must be applied when designing, creating, or revising any official County web page, document, presentation, eForm, eMagazine, eNewsletter, audio/video presentation, web application, and/or any other digital media/web equivalent.
Quality Assurance
Broward Web Publishers must preview the Web page during the approval process prior to publishing the page. During the preview, ensure the following:
- The master page template is correct.
- The page content area layout is appropriate.
- When reviewing the content “Think Mobile First.”
- The content is layed out in a logical way.
- The length of the page content is appropriate for ALL devices.
- The content provides enough “white” space for readability.
- Images appear (i.e. not broken) and have “Alt” tags.
- Use thumbnails to link larger images (maximum size of large image is no more than 600 pixels.
- The information is up-to-date.
- The grammar is correct.
- There are no misspelled words.
- All content, including images, hyperlinks to pages/sites, hyperlinks to documents, etc. are reviewed. For example, if a hyperlink on the page opens a PDF document, the PDF is part of the approval process and needs to be reviewed.
- All links work and there are no “broken” links.
- Links to offsite content open to a new tab/window.
- Errors of any type, no matter how small, bust be resolved prior to publishing. Immediately after publishing the page to Broward.org, perform a second review since the preview may differ once published. Fix any errors immediately and publish the page again to Broward.org. Perform the review once to validate the changes made.
Legal
Copyright
Do not use copyrighted information or images from other sources without permission to reuse the materials on the Broward County internet or intranet websites. Regardless of the source material, i.e. websites, compact discs (CD), books, photographs, etc., written permission may be required if the source material does not list rights to reuse.
The U.S. Copyright Act is found in Title 17 of the U.S. Code and contains the federal statutes governing copyright law in the United States. The Act protects the rights of copyright owners from reproducing (or copying) a work, distributing a work, or publicly displaying a work by others.
One of the reasons that the Web has been so successful is the ability to use graphics to convey information to users. Here are some key points that should be considered when selecting images for incorporation into a Web page.
- Use images created internally from a drawing or image creation program. It is best to create the image from your perspective. Remember, if you alter an existing drawing or image it may violate the copyright of the original work.
- Do not use an image from a commercial website unless licensed to use the image. These images should not be considered “fair use” or “free to use.”
- Certain images, such as Microsoft’s “Internet Explorer” logo, may be used if the user accepts the terms of a license defining the permissible uses of the image. Usually, the user is not allowed to alter the appearance of the image, in any way.
- Use of licensed images, including clip-art, on a website does not violate copyright law. The purchaser of the licensed software has the right to use the image. Be aware that the license may not allow the user to alter the image. Always read the license agreement terms that is included with the software.
Original text, created or written for the development of a website is acceptable without any copyright concerns. Do not use someone else’s text on a website without getting permission from the creator.
Similar to images and text, do not copy scripting or programming from someone else without permission. There may be websites that allow someone to copy the scripting or programming. Be sure that any requirements identified in the website are followed by the programmer.
To summarize, do not use copyrighted information or images from other sources without permission to reuse the materials on the Broward County internet or intranet websites. Regardless of the source material, i.e. websites, books, photographs, etc., written permission may be required if the source material does not list rights to reuse.
Resources
General Resources
Accessibility Resources