Custom Software Development for public project
A career and education portal for the residents of Częstochowa, Poland, run as part of the city's Teraz Lepsza Praca (Better Work Now) programme. EMBIQ adapted the portal to WCAG 2.1 in 2020 and supported it for the city from 2019 to 2025.
Technologies used
Python, Django, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WCAG 2.1
Tools
Adobe XD, Jira
5
Project members
3 months
Project length
Web Development
Category
Public
Branch
The challenge
Teraz Lepsza Praca (Better Work Now) is a programme launched by the City of Częstochowa in 2017 to promote better-quality jobs. One of its parts is the portal praca.czestochowa.pl, a platform that connects the local government, employers, schools and universities, and people looking for work. It brings together job, internship and apprenticeship offers with profiles of local schools, employers, institutions and professions. EMBIQ engineers built the first version of the platform in 2016–2017, and from 2019 the city contracted EMBIQ directly to run the portal and provide technical support. In 2019 Poland passed an act on the digital accessibility of public bodies' websites and mobile apps, which requires them to meet WCAG 2.1. In October 2020 the city asked EMBIQ to bring the portal up to that standard: every page had to work with a keyboard and a screen reader and meet contrast requirements, the login and registration pages had to be rebuilt, a new banner and information page were needed, and the section that held personal data was to be removed. The portal had to stay available to employers and schools throughout the work.
In this project the small team of developers created and implemented a dedicated website. Project was delivered by Project Manager, Backend Developer, Frontend Developer, QA Engineers, UI/UX Designer.
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Key Features
- Accessibility audit of offers, schools, employers, institutions and professions for keyboard navigation, screen readers and contrast
- Navigation bar rebuilt for keyboard use, with a skip to content link and a clearly visible focus state
- New login and registration pages with errors announced to blind users
- Alternative descriptions for buttons, links and forms, readable by screen readers
- Accessible date pickers replacing every calendar input in employer, school and institution accounts
- High-contrast mode and font resizing
- Removal of the section holding personal data, with a new information page and banner
The result
The adapted portal was delivered in December 2020, after about two months of work, and the changes were checked against a WCAG test plan covering the public pages and the logged-in accounts. The city demonstrated each change during the project and commented on it, and in its review on Clutch it described the portal as easy to use and suitable for every resident, pointing to the team's creativity and quick contact. EMBIQ continued to support the portal under a series of contracts with the city: publishing the accessibility statement in 2022, installing security certificates, fixing critical errors and setting up administrator access in 2023, updating the About the programme and Employers sections in 2024, and updating the portal and its accessibility statement in 2025. The programme was listed in the Polish Development Fund's database of urban innovations.
- Portal adapted to WCAG 2.1 and delivered in December 2020
- Keyboard and screen-reader access across all main sections and account types
- Personal-data section removed, reducing the data the portal stores
- Support renewed by the city in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025
- Positive public review from the city on Clutch
The website is easy to use and it is suitable for every inhabitant of our city. The website is an essential element of a programme Better Work Now which get a prize called Innovation in the City and it is placed in the City Innovation base of the Polish Development Fund.
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Agnes
business development specialist
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