Smith College Launches Unified Drupal Website with Accessibility and Performance Upgrades

Staff Reporter

Smith College partnered with Four Kitchens to redesign and unify its digital presence, consolidating three major websites, Smith.edu, the Libraries, and the Botanic Garden into a single Drupal platform using Domain Access. The project included the automated migration of over 30,000 pages, reducing content types from 45 to 11, and introduced a component-based design system built with Emulsify. Accessibility was prioritized, resulting in a 99% reduction in violations and a Lighthouse accessibility score of 100.

Editors gained a streamlined, preview-enabled content creation experience using Paragraphs and CKEditor 5, along with governance tools tailored to domain-specific permissions. Performance improved significantly, achieving a Lighthouse score of 95 and faster load times across all key metrics.

The new platform enhances user navigation, supports flexible storytelling, and reflects the college’s diverse community. Services included design, development, migration, and integration with systems like CourseLeaf and 25Live. The project was led by Four Kitchens, with quotes attributed to Creative Director Randy Oest, Designer Ashley Hitson, and Technical Project Manager Joanna Cendrowski.

Source Reference

Title

Crafting a joyful, accessible, and unified digital experience

Byline

Not provided

Date of Publication

Not Provided

Organization

Four Kitchens

Drupal Website

Accessibility

Drupal

Disclosure: This content is produced with the assistance of AI.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this story do not necessarily represent that of TheDropTimes. We regularly share third-party blog posts that feature Drupal in good faith. TDT recommends Reader's discretion while consuming such content, as the veracity/authenticity of the story depends on the blogger and their motives.

Note: The vision of this web portal is to help promote news and stories around the Drupal community and promote and celebrate the people and organizations in the community. We strive to create and distribute our content based on these content policy. If you see any omission/variation on this please reach out to us at #thedroptimes channel on Drupal Slack and we will try to address the issue as best we can.