Success Stories
Government

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Stockport Council is a local authority in Greater Manchester, England with a responsibility to oversee local services for residents including bin collections, street lighting, libraries, and leisure centres. With over 220,000 residents, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has a responsibility to ensure that all residents are equipped with essential information that affects their day-to-day life.

Our Brief

With a diverse population, Stockport Council wanted to improve access for residents, so they could read and understand online information with ease. This was to support those with disabilities, learning difficulties, visual impairments, and those who speak English as a second language.

Our Solution

To support the needs of the diverse range of residents in Greater Manchester, Stockport Council has removed online barriers for those with disabilities, learning difficulties, visual impairments, and those who speak English as a second language.

The Recite Me accessibility and language toolbar on the Stockport Council website ensures those with a range of abilities can read content in a way that best suits their individual needs. Features of the toolbar include screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options, and an on-demand live translation feature that boasts over 100 languages including 35 text-to-speech options.

“Stockport Council has a transformation programme focussed on improving customer experience. We are modernising the way people access council services, putting the needs of the people who will be using the service first. Most people in Stockport are online and expect information and services to be available 24/7. Making sure that everyone has equal access to this information and our services, regardless of their ability or disability, is a responsibility that we take very seriously. Our user experience team has focussed on our customers’ journeys, looking at ways that we could make it easier for people to use our website and online tools and removing the barriers that some face accessing online content.”