Quick summary
When South Cambridgeshire District Council redesigned their website, accessibility was built into the plan – at least on paper. But something didn’t sit right. “There were things I was spotting that weren’t compliant,” said Websites and Digital Manager Nicole Stimson. A manual audit from Silktide revealed critical issues, including a bin calendar used over a million times a year that screen readers couldn’t access. With fixes in place, the council jumped from 250th to 69th in the Silktide Index – and kick-started a wider push for accessibility across the organization.
About South Cambridgeshire District Council
South Cambridgeshire District Council serves residents across the district with essential services and information. Like many councils, they’re regularly benchmarked against other local authorities. For them, accessibility isn’t just about ticking a legal box – it’s about making sure every resident can use their services online.
The challenge
The council had commissioned an external agency to redesign their website, with accessibility baked into the tender. But when the design came back, Nicole’s team wasn’t convinced.
“The website they gave us was just a front-end – no real code, no content. They told us it was accessible, but I was spotting issues. Maybe it met the bare minimum, but there were things I knew we just shouldn’t be doing.”
Nicole already had experience using Silktide’s platform and saw the redesign as a chance to improve their accessibility. But they needed a deeper check, and reassurance that everything would actually work for real users.
The solution
Instead of taking the agency’s word for it, Nicole’s team commissioned a manual audit from Silktide, but they waited until the site was nearly ready to launch.
“It was essentially a replica of what we were going live with – all the code, all the content. That made the audit way more useful.”
Silktide’s accessibility expert, Andy Hall, ran the audit and hosted a live workshop with Nicole’s team, developers, and stakeholders. His deep knowledge and real-world examples helped everyone understand what needed fixing, and why it mattered.
The outcome
The audit uncovered one especially glaring issue: the bin calendar – viewed over a million times a year – was completely inaccessible to screen readers.
“If the bin calendar breaks, we know in 0.1 seconds – it affects every single resident. And we found out it wasn’t even accessible. A screen reader couldn’t use it at all.”
Fixing the calendar helped not just South Cambridgeshire, but two neighboring councils as well – all three share the same development team, so one set of tickets addressed the issue across the board.
Beyond the technical fixes, the audit provided momentum. The dramatic jump from 250th to 69th in the Silktide Index gave Nicole the internal story she needed to push for change.
“Because we jumped from 250th to 69th, it helped us restart the conversation internally. It gave us momentum.”
What’s next?
With the redesigned site live, Nicole’s team is already applying what they’ve learned to two more upcoming redesigns — this time with accessibility built in from the start. Andy is pencilled in for both audits.
“We’ve raised tickets for things like skip links and focus states based on the first audit, so we’re building that into the next round. Hopefully, the next audits will be cleaner.”
Nicole is also rolling out accessibility training across the organization and encouraging wider use of Silktide’s browser extension and reporting tools..
“Our goal is to get into the top 10. That’s what we’re aiming for now.”