Located in the far west region of New South Wales, the isolated feel of Broken Hill has drawn both people and movie productions (such as “Mad Max: Furiosa”) to the area’s unique natural surroundings. For the Broken Hill City Council (BHCC), though, bringing a population that skewed almost 10 years older than the national average into a world of digital solutions and accessibility might have been a challenge. But with the help of OpenCities (now by Granicus), BHCC created positive change in Council’s interactions with the community and provided a force multiplier for other community-driven projects.
Broken Hill City Council
Broken Hill City Council Increases Digital Inclusion and Accessibility for Community and Businesses
Overview
Making sure that digital technology grows in ways that serve all users is a critical concern for countries around the world. New South Wales’ Disability Inclusion Act addresses this need, requiring that city councils increase accessibility in their online interactions that meet the needs of those who require extra assistance due to a variety of issues.
BHCC found that their website accessibility was a target area for improvement to meet the Act’s requirements. As with many other councils addressing this issue, BHCC developed a four-year action plan to make their website accessible and inclusive to their entire community.
“We didn’t just want to make services available online. We wanted to make them effectively available online,” Jade Symes, Digital and Marketing Officer for BHCC, said.
While BHCC already had some online access functionality, the way the services were integrated often created more problems than solutions.
Digital Tools for Improved Functionality
Accessible Design for both an Aging Population and an Emerging Creative Industry
Situation
Results
Since integrating OpenCities in their digital experience, BHCC has seen strong growth in both the number of services offered to residents digitally and the impact that it has on the community.
“When we focused on creating a high-level user experience, it removed the barriers to entry and access for all of our users. We started to understand that when we built better online experiences using the features in OpenCities, we covered everything, including accessibility,” Symes said.
Where previously BHCC had a dozen digital services available on their website, residents can now find over 140 services online. The shift has saved the council over $25,000 in staff resources and hours spent previously helping residents with council services in person.
Accessibility has also increased. Staff training on accessible design has led to significant upgrades. Integration of technical tools has also made it easier, for example, to use text-to-speech software when visually impaired users visit the website for news releases or other information.
But the digital transformation has made impacts beyond just accessibility and the new approach to digital-first strategies also has shifted how the council approaches their business.
Must-have Granicus solutions
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Find out how OpenCities and OpenForms can help increase accessibility in your digital services.
Over $25,000
140+
in savings
Metrics
Success Story
Download PDF Overview
OpenCities
OpenForms
services moved online
The Broken Hill team began searching for a new website platform that would offer the accessibility features they needed and be easy for staff to use. OpenCities provided an intuitive platform that was WCAG 2.0 AA (now 2.1 AA) compliant and included features that gave the council the power to:
Digital Tools for Improved Functionality
Solution
Focusing on Equity and Accessibility
When traditional strategies need a boost to reach more
Prior to implementing EngagementHQ, the City of Eugene, Oregon focused on a multi-faceted communications strategy that was traditional in nature. They utilized in-person open houses, surveys, and post cards as part of their outreach.
There was, however, a recognition by city staff that in-person events weren’t reaching a large segment of their population. Working parents, busy schedules in general, or a hesitation about speaking in public/attending in-person events, were all barriers to reaching a wider audience.
The city desired a space where residents could learn about current projects and share feedback at their own pace, on their own time, ensuring more voices were heard, not just a vocal minority. A centralized location for projects was key; everything from a serious transportation planning project to a fun neighborhood contest.
Eugene staff knew there would be a bit of a challenge with internal buy-in initially, as far as staff adopting, learning, and updating a new tool, but their concerns were abated once they realized how user-friendly EngagementHQ is.
“Shifting from a newspaper-first communications strategy to an online-first strategy has empowered us to set the tone of communications without relying on journalists and the agendas of outside entities,” Symes said. “We’ve seen a consequent increase in resource allocation and confidence in communicating with residents by positioning the council website, rather than newspapers or radio, over which council has no control, as a single source of truth for local government undertakings,” she added.
Increased
interaction with community and business projects
Reduced
number of vendor calls
2,250%
increase in art competition entries
“Some of our digital services had a higher administrative burden per transaction than their in-person or telephone equivalent. We needed to change that,” Symes added.
“We wanted to make sure that we were providing current technology in our digital services, but also ensure that we were designing it in a way that met the needs of our diverse population,” Symes noted.
The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak also provided an opportunity to develop those services in a time when digital interaction wasn’t just a luxury, it was a necessity.
“We were fortunate to have been well established with our OpenCities website when the pandemic hit, so we were able to accelerate our transition to digital-first service delivery. Our website provided an accessible staging area for those services when they were needed most,” she added.
That relationship impact is also being seen in how BHCC can assist other community groups and businesses. The Maari Ma Indigenous Art Awards and Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, both sponsored by BHCC, celebrate the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and media that reflects the spirit and diversity of the land, respectively. Integrating information and calls for entries for these two awards into their updated digital services saw a dramatic leap in interest both throughout Australia and internationally. Entries jumped from 20 in 2016 to over 450 in the most recent year’s process.
“It’s not only led to a corresponding increase in the quality of art submitted, but these are now considered significant Australian art prizes with winners being exhibited in a major gallery in Sydney,” Symes commented.
The success of the shift has also proven to change cultural assumptions. “While the Maari Ma prize is still served by community workers, people previously thought that Indigenous artists couldn’t access digital services. That has been proved very wrong thanks to the increasing number of entries into this prize now coming in through the council website,” she added.
Business has benefited as well. Thanks to the inclusion of film permit forms integrated into the website through OpenForms, film production companies are finding a different type of increased accessibility: easily completed forms.
With the cinematic heritage of the Broken Hill area, many production companies are interested in shooting in and around the area. But massive permit forms can be daunting. Production companies can complete and submit their permit forms for Broken Hill directly through their website. The difference has been noticeable.
“I’ve heard from industry folks that the film permit hosted on the website is one of the easiest to use in the industry,” Symes said. “I’m surprised because those forms are massive!”
Enhanced ability
to address and improve older property systems
“We wanted to make sure that we were providing current technology in our digital services, but also ensure that we were designing it in a way that met the needs of our diverse population,” Symes noted.
The last two years have proven that the tourism and rental industries have shifted permanently. While short-term rentals spiked during pandemic-related shutdowns at hotels, with many travelers and short-term renters seeking more personal spaces, they continue to be a disruptor to the hotel and lodging sectors.
Silicon Valley thrives on technology, innovation, and even disruption. So, it would only follow that when short-term rental growth hit the area, those three cornerstones of the tech industry would come together to ensure that the short-term rentals didn’t negatively affect communities.
According to Associate Planner Avery Stark, for the city of Milpitas, CA, on the fringes of San Jose and a progressive community for Silicon Valley, that shift started even earlier than the pandemic.
“Shifting from a newspaper-first communications strategy to an online-first strategy has empowered us to set the tone of communications without relying on journalists and the agendas of outside entities,” Symes said. “We’ve seen a consequent increase in resource allocation and confidence in communicating with residents by positioning the council website, rather than newspapers or radio, over which council has no control, as a single source of truth for local government undertakings,” she added.
That relationship impact is also being seen in how BHCC can assist other community groups and businesses. The Maari Ma Indigenous Art Awards and Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, both sponsored by BHCC, celebrate the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and media that reflects the spirit and diversity of the land, respectively. Integrating information and calls for entries for these two awards into their updated digital services saw a dramatic leap in interest both throughout Australia and internationally. Entries jumped from 20 in 2016 to over 450 in the most recent year’s process.
“It’s not only led to a corresponding increase in the quality of art submitted, but these are now considered significant Australian art prizes with winners being exhibited in a major gallery in Sydney,” Symes commented.
The success of the shift has also proven to change cultural assumptions. “While the Maari Ma prize is still served by community workers, people previously thought that Indigenous artists couldn’t access digital services. That has been proved very wrong thanks to the increasing number of entries into this prize now coming in through the council website,” she added.
Business has benefited as well. Thanks to the inclusion of film permit forms integrated into the website through OpenForms, film production companies are finding a different type of increased accessibility: easily completed forms.
With the cinematic heritage of the Broken Hill area, many production companies are interested in shooting in and around the area. But massive permit forms can be daunting. Production companies can complete and submit their permit forms for Broken Hill directly through their website. The difference has been noticeable.
“I’ve heard from industry folks that the film permit hosted on the website is one of the easiest to use in the industry,” Symes said. “I’m surprised because those forms are massive!”
The Broken Hill team began searching for a new website platform that would offer the accessibility features they needed and be easy for staff to use. OpenCities provided an intuitive platform that was WCAG 2.0 AA (now 2.1 AA) compliant and included features that gave the council the power to:
With an older population, many of the staff members at BHCC were related to, or personally connected to someone in the community who needed diversity, disability, or inclusion services. Their hearts were in their work, which helped them thrive during training exercises that focused on skills that would make their new website accessible.
Making sure that digital technology grows in ways that serve all users is a critical concern for countries around the world. New South Wales’ Disability Inclusion Act addresses this need, requiring that city councils increase accessibility in their online interactions that meet the needs of those who require extra assistance due to a variety of issues.
BHCC found that their website accessibility was a target area for improvement to meet the Act’s requirements. As with many other councils addressing this issue, BHCC developed a four-year action plan to make their website accessible and inclusive to their entire community.
“We didn’t just want to make services available online. We wanted to make them effectively available online,” Jade Symes, Digital and Marketing Officer for BHCC, said.
While BHCC already had some online access functionality, the way the services were integrated often created more problems than solutions.
“Some of our digital services had a higher administrative burden per transaction than their in-person or telephone equivalent. We needed to change that,” Symes added.
Provide content in different languages
Make certain that links are never broken with a broken link checker and an internal URL forwarder
Be mobile-first
Structure website content for accessibility and add image ALT tags, allowing text-to-speech solutions