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On Tuesday, the Troup County Board of Commissioners discussed a sales agreement that will allow for a needed upgrade to the county’s website.

Troup Communications Manager Caroline Johnson recommended an agreement with the company, Revize, LLC, for comprehensive web development, hosting and support. The county’s website is currently being hosted by the City of LaGrange and needs an update, Johnson said. Staff recommended going with the company to update the site because there is currently no one onboard who is trained to do so.

Johnson said the update is needed to bring the county’s web content into compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by April 2026.

In April 2024, the Federal Register published the Department of Justice’s requirements for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the regulations have specific requirements about to ensure that web content and mobile applications are accessible to people with disabilities, which includes text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations and conventional electronic documents.

“It’s our responsibility, and we don’t feasibly have a way to comply with this expansive rule without bringing in a third-party vendor along with that upcoming DOJ deadline, we also need to improve our website,” Johnson said. “We need an improved mobile layout for those who try to navigate the website on their smartphones or tablets. With our current site, we don’t currently have the ability to really redesign anything in-house or even with another vendor if the site were to stay on the current platform that it’s on.”

After demoing five companies, the staff ultimately recommended Revised as the vendor for the web overhaul.

“From an ADA perspective, Revize offers a contributing workflow that would be so much more accessible for department heads, leading to more collaboration from non technical staff, their hands on workflow would also save me a lot of time, as I’d no longer be working as a middleman between department heads and it I would just now work directly with department heads to update their web pages in real time,” Johnson said.

Department heads would also have the ability to manage their own web pages by department, with Johnson as the final editor, reviewer and approver.

“This new platform, Revise, also ensures great mobile device viewing, including smartphones, PC tablets, iPads, iPhones, Windows and Android devices. We’ve also been ensured complete integration with our other existing third-party vendors. Those applications would continue to work on the new platform, just as they have on our current website,” Johnson said.

Revize is also the company that the City of LaGrange recently moved over to with their website overhaul, so city staff are familiar with the company and happy with their work, Johnson said.

Johnson recommended a five-year custom contract with Revise at $17,640 each year for five years, which includes annual hosting and maintenance costs. In year five, the site would  receive a free redesign, and the cost would dip to $9,950 per year, starting in year six.