I was engaged by Womens Legal Service Victoria (WLSV) to provide technical consultancy and WordPress development support. This work focused on improving site reliability, establishing robust deployment processes, and ensuring accessibility compliance.

Scope of Work

The engagement comprised three main phases:

• Preliminary Audit: Comprehensive assessment of the existing WordPress installation, identifying performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, and opportunities for technical improvement.

• Plugin Audit: Systematic review of all installed plugins to identify dependencies, security risks, and opportunities for consolidation or replacement.

• Workflow & Documentation: Design and implementation of a staging and deployment workflow, including comprehensive documentation for content editors with a focus on accessibility best practices.

Key Deliverables

• Complete technical audit report with prioritised recommendations
• Plugin analysis including security assessment and consolidation strategy
• Staging workflow documentation enabling safe content testing before production deployment
• Content Accessibility Guide and Checklist for ongoing compliance with WCAG standards
• Handover documentation ensuring knowledge transfer to the internal team

Impact

Performance optimisation recommendations implemented as part of this work improved median page load time by 20×, significantly enhancing the user experience for visitors seeking legal information and services.

Approach

The work emphasised knowledge transfer and sustainable practices. Rather than implementing changes in isolation, I focused on creating clear documentation and workflows that would empower the WLSV team to maintain and improve their site independently. The accessibility guide provides practical, actionable guidance for content creators, ensuring that accessibility considerations are integrated into daily content operations rather than treated as an afterthought.