Lubbock unveils redesigned city website, says it will meet updated ADA requirements

Lubbock city officials on April 14 demonstrated a redesigned public website and a new intranet for employees that they say will bring the city into compliance with updated Title II requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"This site that we have now was launched in early 2018, and it was time for a change," said Lacey Rose, the city’s communications and public engagement director, during a brief demo to the city council. Rose said the current content-management system limited functionality and accessibility and that the new system will automatically produce content in line with the DOJ changes.

City Manager (speaker 2) introduced Rose and framed the demonstration as a short overview before the council moved on to regular agenda items. Rose described the new public site and a staff intranet called PACE (Portal Access for City Employees), and said the system includes built-in accessibility features such as an "audio eye" widget for low-vision and screen-reader users and expanded language support using Google Translate. Rose told the council the Department of Justice updated Title II and that municipalities of the city’s size face an April compliance deadline; she said the new site will launch a couple of days before that deadline.

The demonstration showed a reorganized home page with prominent "hot buttons" for common tasks — paying bills, permits and live council meetings — and dedicated pages for the mayor and council. Rose said department pages can retain individual branding (the airport, for example) while living under the city umbrella, and that most department pages are about 90% complete. She acknowledged that, as with any new site, there may be bugs during rollout and asked the council for patience as staff and the vendor make adjustments.

Council members asked about mobile behavior, directory and staff photos and asked the city to make the MyOBK app and the 311 request tool more visible on the front page. Mayor Pro Tem asked that department staff be visible so residents could "put a face with a name." Dr. Wilson suggested adding an explicit "home" button since some users might not know to click the logo.

Rose said the site includes an alert center to broadcast severe-weather or emergency information across the top of the page and subscription options so citizens can receive updates on topics that interest them. She also said the city is using Google Translate to provide about 200 language options beyond the current English/Spanish choices.

The presentation was purely informational; council did not take formal action on the website at the meeting. The council then proceeded to ceremonial items and its regular agenda.

Next steps: Rose and the communications team will continue vendor testing and adjustments as the site moves to launch; staff encouraged council members to submit new photos if they wish to update their profile images.