Community Relations Website Updated to Enhance User Experience
By Justin Lyons, CRC Member
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Department works to empower, collaborate, engage and promote opportunities to create positive outcomes for diversity, equity and access for all. A core partner in that work is the Community Relations Committee (CRC), a group of 45 appointed members across Charlotte-Mecklenburg who provide a range of perspectives to inform and shape the department’s work. In an effort to better highlight services and opportunities available to the community, Community Relations recently completed a refresh of the department and CRC pages on CharlotteNC.gov.
As part of this update, Community Relations made it a priority to ensure that the content was not only available but accessible. These enhancements include improved visibility for those with low vision and closed captions on videos for those who are deaf and hard of hearing.
“As the department that houses the City’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) program, it was important that we became the model department in the City on web accessibility,” said Lezlie Briggs, community relations specialist and ADA liaison. “As users navigate our site, there are features that enhance the user experience such as Alt Text to provide descriptions of graphic images, highlighting over contact information and larger font sizes just to name a few.”
Visitors to the site can quickly access information on each of Community Relations’ divisions: ADA, Community Affairs, Dispute Settlement and Fair Housing. There are also a number of useful forms available to request assistance and opportunities to learn more about the work of the CRC.
Here are some quick shortcuts to help you navigate the website:
· CRC subcommittees scope of work
· Apply for appointment to CRC
“As users are exploring our site and departments pages, they will notice the various layouts from page to page which make it more user friendly,” said Briggs. “Our site also has more navigation tools for easier page access and information gathering.”
The updated site also aligns with the redesigned CRC newsletter that launched earlier this year. On the site, community members now have the opportunity to submit an idea or story for future consideration within the newsletter. If you have a topic in mind (now or at a later date) or to get caught up on past newsletter issues, visit: Community Relations News & Events. Finally, you can sign up to learn more about City services, events, meetings and projects through the City’s “Stay Connected” portal.
