With the DOJ’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II deadline extended to 2027, accessibility, government offices across the United States are taking action and putting plans in place to ensure their digital services are accessible to everyone. For Bernalillo County’s Office of the County Clerk, the stakes couldn’t be higher – because the website isn’t just a public service. It’s a gateway to democracy.
The team’s accessibility journey began when Uphoria Blackham, Senior Business Support Analyst at Bernalillo County, and her supervisor were exploring the Recite Me Toolbar on the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website. The depth of the customization options – especially the range of languages available – stood out immediately for an elections office focused on expanding access to voters.
But as they began researching further, the scope of what was needed became clear.
“As we began to reach out to Recite Me and to research web accessibility, we learned of the DOJ’s new accessibility requirements and realised that we needed something more than just the toolbar.”
The timing aligned with a full design and content overhaul that the team was leading on the county’s website, alongside a course she was completing on web accessibility requirements. When the team procured the Recite Me toolbar, they requested the Accessibility Checker alongside it.
Accessibility as a democratic responsibility
Elections offices serve one of the broadest possible publics – every eligible voter, regardless of ability, language, or digital confidence. For Bernalillo County, that makes digital accessibility inseparable from the core mission.
Uphoria brings direct experience of ADA Title II requirements from her work on physical voting locations, and she applies that same lens to the digital estate.
“What makes an election free and fair? Voter access is the absolute most important part of our jobs.”
With 35 web pages and a growing number of posts to maintain, ensuring every piece of content meets accessibility requirements is not a task that can be done casually or manually.
Using the Recite Me Accessibility Checker to work systematically
For a team of two managing a live public website, scalability matters. The Recite Me Accessibility Checker gave the Office of the Bernalillo County Clerk a structured, repeatable way to assess accessibility across the site without having to comb through every page individually.
“The Checker is like my right-hand man in identifying a large quantity of issues versus just me combing through each page with a checklist. This would otherwise be a daunting task – verifying that 35 different web pages and a growing number of posts meet accessibility requirements.”
Her process is disciplined and prioritized. Each week, Uphoria runs a fresh scan and exports the results. She works through issues starting with Level A and the highest criticality before moving to Level AA, ensuring the most significant barriers are addressed first.
“I check in with a fresh scan and export every week. I go through issues starting with Level A and highest criticality, then work my way over to Level AA. I make sure I either have an open ticket with our web vendor, an explanation, or I start researching a fix.”
Progress over perfection
The Office of the Bernalillo County Clerk’s approach reflects something important: accessibility isn’t about achieving a perfect score on a single date. It’s about maintaining a structured, documented programme of improvement – and keeping pace even when other priorities compete for attention.
“Web development is not my only job function, so I don’t have as much time as I’d like to devote to this. While we are in the middle of an election, I check through only as time allows.”
That honesty matters. It reflects the reality facing most government teams: limited resources, genuine commitment, and a need for tools that make proportionate action achievable.
Using the Checker, the team follows a simple but effective process:
- Plan: Identify which pages, documents, and assets need auditing.
- Scan: Run a full scan against WCAG 2.2 success criteria.
- Fix: Use AI-powered insights to prioritize fixes.
- Maintain: Ensure long-term compliance with automated scanning.
A long-term commitment to accessibility
Bernalillo County continues to work through its accessibility backlog week by week, balancing the demands of a live election cycle with the ongoing requirement to improve.
Their approach offers a clear lesson for other local government teams: you don’t need to fix everything at once. You need a process, a tool that makes the work manageable, and the commitment to keep going.
As Uphoria’s explained, the case for accessibility in an elections office is as clear as it gets.
“Accessibility is a matter of civil rights and is built on stories of quiet discrimination.“
For the voters of Bernalillo County, that commitment of one scan, one fix, one week at a time, can make a difference.
If you’d like to explore how accessibility technology can support your website visitors, get in touch with the Recite Me team to find out more.
