Five benefits of Drupal for the public sector

Municipalities should be accessible for all. Not only our opinion, also that of the Flemish Government. In an accessible municipality, everyone has equal access to all buildings, public spaces and services. Of course, this also includes all digital platforms of local governments.

To structurally implement this digital accessibility, website builders look to the World Wide Web Consortium. They have introduced a number of guidelines called WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Those guidelines ensure that websites become more accessible to everyone, including citizens with challenges. Websites that adhere to the WCAG are easy to navigate for anyone with visual or other challenges, where things like contrast or readability are important.

Local administrations are often extensive and doesn't only take place in the town hall. External corporatized agencies and cultural organizations are also in the mix. Libraries and cultural centers, for example, are often part of local administration.

To consistently carry a municipality's storytelling and branding through every possible manifestation, a coherent design is much needed. Drupal lends itself perfectly to this. Thanks to the layout builder of our Drupal DXP, components only need to be developed once and can easily be reused afterwards. This is the case for the multisite of Sint-Niklaas, the combo Schilde and Werf 44, or Beveren and CC Ter Vesten. Moreover, we can provide a number of basic components from the corporate identity of Flanders out of the box.

This efficiency also applies to security and safety. Updates, such as security updates, are not done per site on such a platform, but are applied to the entire multi-site platform. That is a big advantage in terms of support and management: it saves money and saves time.