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High Point updates website accessibility, launches city merchandise and readies resident academy
Summary
City staff told the Transparency, Engagement & Communication Committee they are working toward federal WCAG website compliance, reported heavy traffic to a new city merchandise store and opened applications for an HP 101 resident academy that will accept 25 participants this year.
Patrick Harmon, the committee chair, opened the meeting and heard a community-engagement briefing from Jeron Hollis, the city's managing director. Hollis said the city is working with its web vendor to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and that the federal compliance deadline has been extended to April of next year.
"We have products that provide accessibility monitoring and another that converts PDFs into accessible, searchable formats," Hollis said, describing tools that support screen readers, mobile accessibility and language translation. He told the committee staff are coordinating across departments to prepare for the extended deadline.
Hollis also described a new online merchandise store, which the marketing division soft-launched and officially launched last week. "We've had over 13,000 unique users that have clicked on the link to check out the store," he said, and initial items include shirts and hats meant to raise the visibility of the High Point brand.
On resident engagement, Hollis outlined "HP 101," a resident academy that runs from August through November and will offer sessions and demonstrations from police, fire, economic development and transportation staff. Applications are open, and Hollis said the city plans to accept 25 participants for this cycle. Council member Britt Moore, who spoke during the presentation, praised the program: "HP 101 was an amazing experience for all of the people that work for the city," she said, calling it an opportunity to learn how the city operates.
All items were presented as information-only; the committee did not take votes on any of the updates.
Next steps: staff will continue accessibility work with the vendor, report further metrics on merchandise sales to the committee as they become available, and open the HP 101 application window to residents and neighborhood representatives.
