McLean County IT staff previewed a new “Agenda Center” web tool at the county board meeting on April 17, saying it will centralize agendas, attachments, audio and video and help the county meet a Department of Justice accessibility requirement by April 2026.

Craig Nelson, speaking on behalf of the county’s IT team, told the board that “the goal is to achieve a specified level of accessibility on the website and in the social media presence by April of 2026,” and noted a related resolution appears later in the board’s packet. He said the change responds to a final rule from the Department of Justice and that the county is working to update processes as that deadline approaches.

Digital media coordinator Dan Leary led a live demonstration showing how the Agenda Center will display agendas, attachments, minutes and audio in one location and link directly to the exact meeting video on YouTube. “All in one place. Audio. Got it. Easy peasy,” Leary said during the demo. He also demonstrated keyword search and filters (for example, narrowing results to “County Board” or a date range), an RSS feed option, and a “Notify Me” function that allows users to sign up for e-mail or text alerts the moment an agenda posts.

County staff said some boards still must be imported into the new system and that the tool is not yet live. Nelson and Leary described the change as intended to improve both accessibility and usability for residents who seek meeting materials or recordings.

The presentation also flagged administrative steps: IT and county administration have discussed a timeline and internal process changes, and staff recommended the board consider the packeted resolution addressing web accessibility requirements. The IT presenters said they will continue work on rollout details and content imports before the tool goes live.

The demonstration lasted roughly 20 minutes in the public meeting and concluded with staff inviting board members to test the system once it is available. No formal vote on deployment was taken during the presentation; the packet contains a separate resolution about accessibility that the board will consider under later business.