Prototype. A redesign and migration concept for the Township of Belleville, prepared by Stoa for the Township Website Migration and Hosting Services RFP. This is a demonstration, not the Township's live website.
Town Hall · 152 Washington Ave, Belleville, NJ 07109 · Mon–Fri 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Legal notices · Services · Contact · (973) 450-3141
Township of Belleville cherry-blossom emblem

Essex County, New Jersey

Township of Belleville

Home of America's cherry blossoms

Compliance by design

Accessibility statement

The Township is committed to meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA under New Jersey P.L. 2023, c.113. This prototype is built to that standard from the ground up, not patched after the fact and not delegated to an accessibility overlay.

How this prototype meets the standard

  • Language declared. Every page sets <html lang="en"> so screen readers pronounce content correctly.
  • Keyboard first. A visible skip link, logical tab order, and a clearly visible focus outline on every interactive control.
  • Real landmarks. Semantic header, nav with labels, main, and footer so assistive technology can navigate by region.
  • Labeled controls. The legal-notice search inputs and selects each have a programmatically associated <label>; results announce through an aria-live region.
  • Descriptive text alternatives. Images carry meaningful alt text; decorative marks are hidden from assistive technology.
  • AA color contrast. Body and interactive text clear the 4.5:1 ratio; the palette was chosen to pass, not retrofitted.
  • Accessible documents. Downloadable PDFs are migrated as tagged, OCR-searchable files, never flat scans.

What we found

A quick audit of the current bellevillenj.org homepage

Before proposing a redesign, Stoa reviewed the live homepage markup. The findings below are verified Level A failures, the kind a screen-reader user hits first. They are exactly what "Compliance by Design" is meant to prevent, and they are why an overlay widget is not a substitute for conformant markup.

Verified findings on the current homepage
Finding WCAG criterion Level Why it matters
<html> has no lang attribute 3.1.1 Language of Page A Screen readers cannot determine the page language.
16 of 25 homepage images missing alt 1.1.1 Non-text Content A Logos and seals are announced as unlabeled images or skipped.
3 form inputs, 0 <label> elements 1.3.1 / 3.3.2 / 4.1.2 A The search and other fields are not programmatically labeled.
Accessibility overlay widget in use Advisory Note Overlays do not deliver conformance and have drawn their own litigation.
Broken image: unresolved server path token Defect Note A seal image never renders, shipping broken in production.
End-of-life stack (AngularJS 1.x, Bootstrap 3, IE8 polyfills) Advisory Note Frameworks past end-of-life receive no security or accessibility updates.
Skip-to-content target present 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks Pass One thing already done right, and worth keeping.
Note for reviewers: These findings come from reading the live homepage HTML. A full engagement would extend this to an automated axe-core and Lighthouse scan of the homepage plus interior pages, producing a scored baseline and a remediation roadmap delivered with the migration.

Feedback & accommodations

If any part of the Township website is difficult to use with assistive technology, or you need information in an alternate format, contact Town Hall and we will provide the content another way. In production this page lists a named accessibility coordinator and a direct response timeline.

Contact Town Hall →