SEPA

Strengthening accessibility, governance and sustainability across a complex public sector web estate

Services provided

Accessibility audit
Web estate review
Content design

The ask

SEPA, Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, manages a large and complex digital estate supporting a wide range of users, from businesses and regulated industries to communities, researchers and policymakers. With increasing regulatory expectations around accessibility and a growing web estate made up of multiple sites and domains, SEPA needed specialist support to ensure its digital presence was compliant, sustainable and fit for the future.

Storm ID was engaged to provide additional capacity and expertise to support accessibility compliance, review the wider web estate and help establish robust foundations for long-term content governance. The engagement needed to move at pace, balance audit and remediation with strategic thinking, and support SEPA teams through knowledge transfer.

What we did

We delivered the work through a structured, multi-workstream approach, allowing tactical improvements and strategic planning to progress in parallel. Close collaboration with SEPA teams was central throughout, ensuring insight was shared, decisions were well informed and recommendations were grounded in organisational reality.

Accessibility audit and remediation

We conducted a comprehensive accessibility audit of SEPA’s web estate against WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This combined detailed manual testing with assistive technologies, including screen readers and magnification tools, alongside testing of downloadable documents such as PDFs and Word files.

The findings were documented in a remediation plan, enabling SEPA to take informed decisions on next steps.

Editorial support and content improvement

Alongside the audit, we provided hands-on editorial and content design support to help address existing accessibility issues and improve content quality. Working closely with SEPA teams, we advised on accessible content practices and embedded accessibility considerations directly into day-to-day publishing workflows.

This approach was geared to clear content backlogs while ensuring improvements could be sustained once the engagement concluded.

Web estate review and consolidation planning

SEPA’s digital estate had grown over time, resulting in multiple websites and domains with overlapping content and varying levels of performance. We carried out a strategic review of the estate, informed by analytics, SEO insights and accessibility findings, to identify opportunities for rationalisation and consolidation.

The output was a clear consolidation proposal, including a high-level information architecture, guidance on cutover and migration considerations, and an explanation of the benefits for users, content teams and sustainability.

Governance and knowledge transfer

To support long-term success, we developed best practice guidance for content governance. This set out roles, workflows and review processes to help SEPA maintain accessibility compliance and content quality independently.

The guidance was shaped by engagement with SEPA stakeholders and supported by training and knowledge transfer sessions, ensuring teams were confident applying best practice beyond the end of the project.

Results

Through this engagement, SEPA gained clarity, confidence and a practical roadmap for improving its digital estate. The outcomes included:

A detailed, WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility audit.
A costed remediation plan to support prioritised, evidence-based improvements.
Improved accessibility and quality of live content through embedded editorial support.
A clear, strategic proposal for web estate consolidation and simplification.
Practical governance guidance enabling SEPA teams to sustain compliance and best practice.

By combining immediate delivery with strategic planning and knowledge transfer, Storm ID helped SEPA strengthen its digital foundations while supporting its wider environmental and public service responsibilities.