The Challenge

Humboldt County California's civic leaders are committed to ensuring equitable access to municipal services for all its residents and visitors. When the County identified a need to enhance its digital content to make it more accessible, per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, it partnered with CivicPlus and AudioEye.

"Through our partnership with CivicPlus and AudioEye, it has opened the doors for us to work together to find accessibility barriers site-wide and remediate them. The more people and resources that contribute to improving our website’s accessibility, the better,”said Mike Tjoelker, Humboldt County IT Applications Analyst.

According to Sean Quincey, Humboldt County Deputy County Administrative Officer, choosing to leverage CivicPlus’ partnership with AudioEye to enhance the County’s website and digital content was a crucial tactic in its commitment to accessibility.

“Accessibility has always been important to the county,” said Quincey, “But working with CivicPlus and AudioEye helped us to bring compliance to our online services in ways that would have been almost impossible without them. Their experience and expertise ensure that we don’t have blind spots and that we have the tools to incorporate accessibility throughout our website.”

Mike Tjoelker, Humboldt County IT Applications Analyst, cautions that non-compliant digital content that does not follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can create disproportionate barriers to digital content for some citizens. Such hurdles can cause frustrations for citizens, and additional administrative burdens for municipal staff.

The Solution

When Humboldt County initiated its strategic project to enhance its digital accessibility compliance, it turned to its existing website solution partner, CivicPlus.

“We wanted to be a leader among California counties in Web accessibility, and AudioEye clearly demonstrated that they provided unique solutions to help in this regard,” said Jim Storm, Humboldt County IT Division Director.

Relative to the selection of an integrated solution partner—CivicEngage® and AudioEye—Tjoelker adds, “It is beneficial to have CivicPlus and AudioEye working so closely since they can come up with solutions together when developer issues or questions arise.”

County of Humboldt Logo

It has opened the doors for us to work together to find accessibility barriers site-wide and remediate them.”

Mike Tjoelker

Humboldt County IT Applications Analyst

The Benefits

Addition of the AudioEye Toolbar to enable visitors to personalize their website experience.

24/7 Help Desk for website visitors who experience an accessibility barrier.

Ongoing, site-wide website monitoring, testing and remediation of accessibility errors.

Enhanced internal team capabilities by leveraging the AudioEye tools and technology.

Strengthened overall culture of accessibility among all county Departments.

Serving Citizens

“Citizens seem pleased by our response time when they reach out about accessibility barriers or information they are unable to find on the website,” said Tjoelker. “It has been a team effort—between our community, county employees, and web-related vendors—to create a more accessible website.”