The State of Missouri has a lot going for it. Extensive public lands and roadways, lots of caves, and the birthplace of Mark Twain. Not to mention, totality in the St. Joseph area during the August 21 eclipse. And now, coming soon, an enhanced web presence for the departments of conservation and transportation.
Missouri Department of Conservation
Our contract with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) began in 2016 to determine and implement website enhancements that better serve content to the public and are ADA/508 compliant.
The MDC is an important agency that helps citizens to use, enjoy, and learn about the state’s abundant fish, woodland, and wildlife resources. The three primary websites are:
These sites provide information on topics including:
- Hunting and fishing seasons
- Regulations
- Programs
- Events
- Land management
- Educational resources
- Natural history
“We have assessed the three separate MDC websites for 508 and WCAG compliance,” says GovWebworks (GWW) developer Adam Kempler. “We are now implementing a prioritized plan of resolution based on the severity of each issue. Each issue and its resolution has been entered into our custom Accessibility Resolution Knowledgebase (ARK), making it easy for the client to search for past solutions to repurpose in the future.”
GWW will also be working on upgrading the maps feature for better usability on the Discover Nature site. This includes an integration of GIS data into Drupal, and implementation of a multi-layered leaflet map system.
Missouri Department of Transportation
In 2017, thanks to a statewide shared services contract, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) asked GWW to create a Drupal 8 beta site for modot.org.
MoDOT is another important state agency that works with the public, transportation partners, legislators, and other state and local agencies to provide safe and efficient transportation on the 33,856 miles of highway in Missouri. The MoDOT site might see close to 100,000 visitors a day during major road events and averages about 2.1 million visitors annually.
“The dedicated team at MoDOT wants to bring the right content to the right people, but are held back by technology,” says GWW project manager Sarah Crossman. “A few key limitations with their existing online presence make it difficult to do the work they want to do.”
The GWW project team visited Jefferson City in August to kick off the Drupal 8 beta site project. As determined during discovery meetings, objectives for the beta site include the following initiatives:
- Achieve “matchmaking” between audiences and relevant content (geographical, topical, and timely)
- Emphasize road conditions such as events, closures, advisories, and major projects
- Improve visitor access to district-specific information including search and help functions
- Remove technology as a barrier to MoDOT’s content creators (statewide and districts)
- Welcome and cater to mobile users in a way that is efficient for the site administrators
- Create an intuitive and user-friendly administrative experience to facilitate site maintenance and user access to up-to-the-minute information
- Enable MoDOT to control their content and site with minimal cost for development and technical resources
- Implement a flexible, long-term, sustainable platform and design
The beta site is projected for completion in 2018, at which point MoDOT will share the site with stakeholders for evaluation and feedback.
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