As you read this blog, you may notice that our website looks a bit different. Just as we encourage Nebraska providers to become better and better with Step Up to Quality, our team is also committed to continual improvement. So, welcome to the new Step Up to Quality website — its first-ever complete redesign! Here are a few ways this site makes our program’s information more accessible and engaging for providers, parents, media and more. 

Simplifying resources 

Previously, Step Up to Quality had two websites: one as an extension of the Nebraska Department of Education with high-level information about the program, and one more tailored to parents and providers who wanted quick information. Now, we’ve brought together everything under a single URL: stepuptoquality.ne.gov.

We want to make sure anyone interested in the program can find exactly what they need quickly and easily, so we took a serious look at our navigational structure and added a search function to make finding information as intuitive as possible. More website pages also feature links to additional, relevant content, so visitors can easily explore related information. 

Improving accessibility 

We partnered with an accessibility consultant to audit our two previous websites and conduct user testing to ensure the new site was as accessible as possible. Some considerations included increasing color contrast, writing image descriptions, adding search functionality and including short summaries at the bottom of main pages, which help minimize the cognitive load it takes to understand and retain a page’s content. 

All of these accessibility updates not only improve our website’s experience for people with disabilities — they benefit every site visitor! Moving forward, we will continue to implement updates that increase accessibility even further, including updating our provider search tool and ensuring information currently hosted on PDFs and forms can be read by screen readers.  

Increasing engagement 

Site visitors can now find stories, updates, media articles and our podcasts episodes all under our blog page with the ability to sort by content type. We’re also pleased to now have all our resources in one place, including important information for providers, parents, peers and the media. 

Whether you’ve been with us every step of the way or are just now learning about how Step Up to Quality can benefit you, thank you for being a part of our journey.