Category: Common Look and Feel

Starting Fresh with Fewer Pages

When the Delaware Division of the Arts set out to update its website, the challenge wasn’t just strategic, it was the technical equivalent of cleaning out the attic before moving into a new house. With more than a decade of old content, hundreds of legacy pages, and only one person dedicated to the task, the […]

May 5, 2026

A Love Letter to White Space

It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play. – Miles Davis Miles Davis was a champion of economy in music. French impressionist composer Claude Debussy said: “Music is the space between the notes.” For generations, musicians and artists have paid attention to that space. A study has even shown that musicians […]

April 15, 2026

GIC Accessibility Newsletter: Issue #9

ADA Digital Accessibility Deadline This Month One thing about time: It will sneak up on you. Here we are, less than a month from the ADA digital accessibility deadline. So what happens on that deadline day? Not necessarily anything. But that’s the date by which online material will be expected to be in compliance if […]

April 2, 2026

Check Out Our New Look!

Our very own GIC website has now been upgraded to the Lighthouse Design System! The goal: To eliminate as many hard-coded accessibility issues as possible while improving functionality and user experience, so we can focus on keeping our editable content accessible. Our small agency took on the same editorial challenge that our Lighthouse partner agencies […]

March 31, 2026

GIC Accessibility Newsletter: Issue #8

Zero Project Conference Begins Streaming Tomorrow The Zero Project was established with the goal of working for a world with zero barriers. Beginning tomorrow, Wednesday February 18th, more than 1,000 participants will attend the Zero Project Conference. The in-person conference at the United Nations Office at Vienna is an invitation-only event, but live and on-demand content will […]

March 3, 2026

GIC Accessibility Newsletter: Issue #7

Accessibility Updates on the Way for Current Common Look and Feel The GIC is responsible for creating the guidelines of our state website Common Look and Feel (CLF). Most of the agencies we work with are currently on CLF4, and all will eventually move to the new Lighthouse Design System. One of the biggest reasons […]

Coming Soon: New Improvements to CLF4

Here at the GIC we’ve been hard at work building new, fully accessible state agency websites on our new Lighthouse design system. But in the meantime, we are also working toward remediating any lingering issues that remain for our CLF4 partners. Previous updates include a switch to the State of Delaware teal blue heading background […]

January 28, 2026

2026 Best Practices: Social Media

Happy New Year! As we move into 2026, it’s a good time to renew our commitment to effective digital communication. As representatives of important government agencies, it’s our duty to pay attention to ALL our digital messaging. That includes the often-overlooked platform of social media. Here’s a quick breakdown of some civic tech social media […]

January 8, 2026

GIC Accessibility Newsletter: Issue #5

DTI Offers Training for New Accessibility Testing Extension DTI’s agreement with Level Access has expanded to include a new accessibility testing browser extension feature called Test Accelerator. This is a manual testing tool used to conduct structured accessibility evaluations and to document results. There will be a one-hour online training session on December 29th at […]

December 17, 2025

Keeping Delaware’s Social Media Accessible

Most people who work with Delaware state websites are aware of the need to make their content accessible. But they may not realize that the same standards (and laws) apply to social media. Social media is often the fastest way to reach the public, but if posts aren’t created with accessibility in mind, they can […]

December 8, 2025