Website Governance

Baltimore County’s presence on the web is essential to the administration’s mission of transparency and service to its constituents. The established design and writing style guides and policies are managed to ensure the:

  • Accuracy and authority of Baltimore County websites
  • Speed, responsiveness and organization of Baltimore County web content management systems

The guidelines and policies apply to all Baltimore County websites and any websites using Baltimore County branding or conducting Baltimore County business.

GENERAL GUIDELINES AND POLICIES

  1. All webpages published on Baltimore County websites must comply with the criteria below. In addition to these criteria, web pages will be consistent within the following existing laws and policies:
    1. Federal and State laws
    2. Applicable copyright, licensing and personal privacy laws
    3. Baltimore County User Terms and Conditions
  2. Baltimore County’s web presence serves as a vital channel of communication and must always, effectively reflect the administrations goals, missions and objectives, and offer intuitive navigation leading to compelling, accurate and up-to-date content that reaches its intended audience.
  3. Each agency is responsible for appointing a Web Coordinator and Content Contributors to manage content that meets agency missions and goals.
  4. Content distributed among Baltimore County websites should reflect the administrations mission, agency goals and serve the County’s constituents in the best way possible.
  5. Content must present a unified, and demonstrate a consistent, authority of Baltimore County and adhere to guidelines approved by the Web Services Team, regardless of where the site is hosted.
  6. All webpages should be compliant with the W3C Accessibility standards(link is external), including compatibility with screen readers.
  7. Web development projects will be prioritized based on the needs of Baltimore County and the workload of the web development team.
  8. Agencies interested in adding content to their web sections must provide planning documentation for how the added content meets agency goals, mission and constituents needs. Web Services will determine the appropriateness of; if, how and where the information will be published on Baltimore County websites.
  9. Navigation and information architecture for Baltimore County websites will primarily be based on function and process as it relates to the audience and not on the County’s organizational chart or internal processes.
  10. All webpages will either meet or exceed the standards for Baltimore County, industry best practice and accessibility across all platforms, browsers and devices.