Hounslow Council’s website has been commended for its accessibility and is in the top five local authorities’ websites for delivering information to hard to traditionally hard to reach groups.

www.hounslow.gov.uk was recognised as one of the top five most accessible local authority websites in the country at the 2011 Good Communication Awards (GCA), which recognises excellence in public sector communications.

The commendation reflects Hounslow’s commitment to making the website accessible for people who might otherwise have difficulty navigating the site. The category rewarded ‘outstanding progress in using technologies to extend the delivery of information and services to include traditionally hard-to-reach groups, such as users who are disabled or who have particular access needs.’

The commendation was also given for ease of accessing information by avoiding excessive graphics leading to fast downloads times.

Cllr Jagdish Sharma, leader of the London Borough of Hounslow said:

“Making the website as accessible as possible is increasingly important as we make more and more services available online and encourage our customers to use it to get information, carry out transactions and engage with us.

“I’d like to thank all the web team staff in Communications and ICT who have worked hard to get us to this level, but also ask residents who use the site to let us know if we can improve the site in any way.”

The Good Communication Awards panel stated:

“The web team at Hounslow are continuously working to improve the accessibility and usability its site.

“The accessible design avoids using excessive graphics in an effort to maximise quick download times and access to information which cannot be read if in image format. A page contrast option switches the text to yellow and the background to black.

“Hounslow uses an external monitoring, reporting and alerting service to ensure its website is available and performing well.”