Social Security Administration partners with Materiell to redesign the “Social Security Matters” blog.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has provided financial protection for our nation’s people for over 80 years. Between retirement, disability, and survivors benefits, Social Security is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in our U.S. history.
The Social Security Matters Blog is designed to help citizens learn more about the SSA tools, online services, and how programs can benefit individuals.
Services
- Custom applications and APIs
- FedRamp certified Managed
WordPress Hosting - WordPress Maintenance and Support
- Web Development
- Web Design
- WCAG 2.1 AA
- User Training
Needs
The Social Security Matters blog serves as a reliable information resource for their audiences and communities. They needed a site that better matched the design of the main SSA.gov site as well as meeting the highest standards of accessibility and responsive design and responsive accessibility.
As a national government agency, they also required a high level of security with FedRamp protocols in place, which had not previously been on the blog.
On the backend of WordPress, the SSA staff required workflows and functionality specific to help manage the site, provide internal metrics, and meet their security requirements.
While SSA has significant IT staff, it was important to the communications team to have more control over the blog so they could respond immediately to comments directly and make adjustments in a more flexible and timely manner.
Solution
Materiell worked closely with SSA to design the new Social Security Matters Blog site with the WCAG 2.1 AA standards in mind along with the main SSA site’s design standards. The new site blends these standards with the unique needs of the communications team to provide a reliable and highly usable site for the specific SSA audience. Materiell collaborated with the SSA blog team to develop an easy to use backend that included their required functionality and met specific security and reporting requirements.
Security was a prime concern for the SSA. Materiell set up a hosting environment using FedRamp authorized services on the Google Cloud. We worked closely with the SSA team to provide all necessary information to be given the authority to operate the blog by the Office of Information Security. Materiell continues to manage the site and support the SSA’s efforts in educating and engaging the public about all aspects of Social Security.
