{"resourceId":"mendocino-county-new-website-accessibility-testing-gaps-20261109","versions":[{"version":"external-e6e8e169328ed99b1cc2fad627cdd3de33b2d6d602637a8c01ee753e64eee949","resource":{"id":"mendocino-county-new-website-accessibility-testing-gaps-20261109","title":"Mendocino County's $259,296 Granicus website relaunch: reporter tests find axe-core errors on 6 of 26 pages, an unreadable 985-page scanned ADA transition plan, unlabeled form CAPTCHAs and 49 dead links","organization":"County of Mendocino, California (Information Services)","sector":"County website and digital front door","geography":"Mendocino County, California, United States","publishedAt":"2026-11-09","publicationDate":"2026-11-09","eventDate":"2026-10-22","sourceName":"The Mendocino Voice (with Bay City News)","sourceLabel":"Mendocino County’s new $259,296 website puts the right page first","sourceUrl":"https://mendovoice.com/2026/11/mendocino-countys-new-259296-website-puts-the-right-page-first/","evidenceClass":"independent-reporting","outcomeClass":"mixed","topics":["accessibility-workforce","governance-procurement","data-security"],"finding":"The Mendocino Voice's Nov. 9, 2026 report says the county's new site on Granicus OpenCities, contracted at $243,444 plus $15,852 for forms ($259,296 through June 2030), launched Oct. 22 after slipping from Sept. 17. In the outlet's own tests, axe-core found no errors on 20 of 26 pages, Lighthouse gave the homepage a perfect accessibility score, every tested page had a skip link and all 1,223 crawled images had alt attributes; search now returns the right page first. Remaining gaps: the complaint-form CAPTCHA has no screen-reader label, 49 links hit the error page, about two dozen pages (including Behavioral Health language-help) are hidden from search, and the 985-page ADA transition plan is an image scan with no readable text. The old site's undisclosed Lucky Orange session recording was removed.","sledRelevance":"Independent journalist testing of a county relaunch ahead of the April 26, 2027 Title II deadline, showing both what a platform migration fixes and what it leaves (forms, scanned documents, dead links). Published Nov. 9, after the last run; ADA accessibility was an empty CE subtopic on Nov. 9.","evidence":"Reporter-run automated tests (axe-core on 26 pages, Lighthouse, a site crawl) plus county statements and contract figures; automated tools miss many WCAG failures and no manual assistive-technology testing is reported.","architectureImplications":"Migration to a hosted CMS with ~1,000 pages and ~8,000 documents; forms built on an unsupported legacy tool remain the weak point; old document URLs were not redirected.","governanceImplications":"Launch was delayed to fix quality issues; county says forms will be rebuilt and flagged items followed up; no formal conformance statement is cited.","securityPrivacyImplications":"Removal of undisclosed visitor session recording (Lucky Orange on ~290 of 375 old pages) is a privacy improvement; new site earned an A+ SSL Labs grade in the outlet's test.","caveats":"Automated testing on a 26-page sample; reporter, not auditor; county has not published its own audit; dead links and indexing may be fixed quickly.","streamIds":["citizen-engagement"],"roles":{"sales":"Sales framing: Mendocino shows a new platform fixes the homepage, not the long tail. Independent tests found clean pages but an unlabeled form CAPTCHA, 49 dead links and a scanned 985-page ADA plan. Discovery before the April 2027 Title II deadline should ask about forms, legacy PDFs, redirects and search indexing, not just templates. A bounded engagement is a post-migration accessibility and content audit with manual testing. Do not imply a CMS purchase delivers compliance.","engineering":"Engineering framing: platform migration solved alt text, skip links and search relevance, but forms on an unsupported tool, missing redirects and noindex settings remained. Prerequisites for a clean relaunch are a URL redirect map, a forms inventory and a document triage of scans. Proof of value should pair automated scans across all pages with manual screen-reader testing of forms, a redirect check on old document URLs and an indexing audit.","delivery":"Delivery framing: the county's IT team carried content clean-up department by department and now owns the residual gaps. Proposed acceptance criteria: zero critical automated errors on a full crawl, every form tested with a screen reader, no old document URL ending in an error page, and a text version of the ADA transition plan. Assign owners for forms and documents, and publish an accessibility statement with a feedback route."},"roleDetails":{"sales":{"customerProblem":"Counties racing the Title II deadline with legacy forms, scanned documents and fragmented content.","stakeholders":["County IT director","ADA coordinator","Department web editors","County counsel"],"discoveryQuestions":["Which forms and documents sit outside the new CMS?","Are old URLs redirected?","Has anyone tested with a screen reader?"],"valueHypothesis":"A post-migration audit can find residual barriers platform templates miss; risk reduction, not guaranteed compliance.","potentialEngagement":"A post-launch accessibility audit combining full-site scans, manual assistive-technology testing and a redirect check.","unsupportedClaims":["CMS purchase equals compliance","Lighthouse score proves conformance","Cost-per-resident benchmarks"]},"engineering":{"fit":"Fits counties that recently migrated, or are migrating, to a hosted government CMS.","architectureIntegration":"Hosted CMS with legacy form tool and document library; redirects and indexing controlled in CMS settings.","prerequisites":["Redirect map","Forms inventory","Document triage of scanned files"],"constraints":["Automated tools catch a subset of WCAG failures","Legacy form vendor unsupported","Scanned archives partly exempt"],"security":"Remove undisclosed session recording, keep TLS strong and review third-party scripts.","proofOfValue":["Full-crawl automated scan","Manual screen-reader test of every form","Old-URL redirect check"]},"delivery":{"work":"Audit the relaunched site, rebuild forms, add redirects and remediate priority documents.","dependencies":["CMS vendor","Department editors","ADA coordinator"],"ownership":"County information services with the ADA coordinator.","skillsAdoption":"Train editors on accessible documents and forms, and on checking indexing settings.","governanceCheckpoints":["Pre-launch accessibility gate","Form rebuild sign-off","Quarterly scan review"],"acceptanceCriteria":["Zero critical automated errors on full crawl","All forms pass manual screen-reader test","No old document URL returns an error page"],"risks":["Forms left on unsupported tool","Hidden service pages","Scanned key documents"]}},"retrievedAt":"2026-11-10T22:25:16-06:00","enrichedAt":"2026-11-10T22:29:03-06:00","enrichmentBasis":"retrieved source","accessibilityWorkforceImplications":"Screen-reader users still face an unlabeled CAPTCHA and an unreadable ADA transition plan; hidden language-help page affects limited-English residents.","procurementImplications":"Contract value and term are public; buyers can compare platform cost per resident, though commenters dispute benchmarks.","operatingModelImplications":"Content clean-up (duplicates, drafts, outdated COVID pages) was done department by department; ongoing link, indexing and form maintenance is now an IT responsibility.","sourceVerification":{"openedUrl":"https://mendovoice.com/2026/11/mendocino-countys-new-259296-website-puts-the-right-page-first/","referenceExcerpt":"an accessibility checker called axe-core found no errors on 20 of 26 county pages.","promptVersion":"sled-research-v4.0","model":null,"basis":"agent-reported inspection"}}}]}