Auditing, Assessing, and Telling Stories about “Historic Preservation”

Arts Equity Group partnered with Preserve Rhode Island to audit, assess, and revitalize their digital accessibility and communications strategy. By recommending actionable improvements and long-term enhancements across the organization, AEG helped Preserve RI better position itself for increased digital engagement, strengthened brand consistency, and improved accessibility, ensuring a broader reach and higher visibility.

Project Overview

Client

Client Background

Preserve Rhode Island is a statewide nonprofit dedicated to preserving historic buildings and settings in Rhode Island. The organization has a unique mission to promote inclusivity within the field, addressing and redressing the traditionally elitist nature surrounding historical preservation. The objective of their endeavors is to preserve the past while making that process more accessible and inclusive to all communities across Rhode Island.

Objectives

Preserve RI sought AEG’s assistance to devise a cohesive communications strategy designed to bolster audience engagement, with a particular focus on audiences who have historically excluded from the field of historic preservation. Preserve RI also sought to enhance the user experience across their digital platforms and to improve accessibility. Their goals also included increasing engagement on both their website and social media channels, strengthening the consistency of their digital communications, and optimizing content to not only better SEO performance and visibility but also to align with their organizational values and mission of fostering a more inclusive historical preservation practice.

Challenges

Preserve RI faced several challenges, some there were specific to the organization and some that were more endemic to the field of historic preservation. At the organizational level, Preserve RI is a small non-profit with a lean staff and a tight budget. Because the staff size is so small, there was no dedicated role for communications and marketing. Instead, multiple stakeholders within the organization share this responsibility. There were some existing website constraints, which impacted both staff usability, and user experience and accessibility. As a result, the organization’s digital engagement was low.

Preserve RI also faced a number of changes that were external to the organization. Historic preservation as a field has long been associated with preserving buildings, landmarks, and neighborhoods that reflect the histories and tastes of affluent White communities. Many preservation efforts have centered on maintaining spaces of privilege, often excluding diverse narratives and prioritizing aesthetics over accessibility. This legacy has resulted in a perception of — and real experiences of — preservation as elitist and disconnected from the lived experiences of marginalized groups, particularly BIPOC communities and those in economically disadvantaged areas.

Preserve RI, however, has long worked to leverage the tools of historic preservation to support community accessibility, diversity, and affordability. The organization’s day to day work was rooted in the reimagining of purpose of historic preservation—not as a means to freeze history for the privileged few, but as a dynamic tool for building equitable, vibrant, and inclusive communities. One of Preserve RI’s biggest challenges centered around finding ways to make the tools of preservation available to those who had previously been marginalized and excluded by this very field, and to tell high-impact audience-focused stories of their work.

Our Offerings

  • AEG improved Preserve RI's digital presence by supplying recommendations to enhance website content, optimize SEO, and improve social media engagement, which included guidance on alt text, color contrast, and captioning for accessibility. Furthermore, AEG developed a comprehensive communications strategy for Preserve RI, aligning the organization’s digital presence with its mission and values to ensure better outreach and engagement with its audiences.

  • AEG’s audit of Preserve RI’s digital assets, focusing on improving accessibility and inclusivity across their platforms, integrated DEAI principles inherently rooted in both partners’ values. This included reviewing website content for compliance with accessibility standards and ensuring diverse representation in social media content. Additionally, AEG’s work with Preserve RI ensured that the digital presence and communications reflected the inclusive and community-centered nature of the organization, a key element of public art and placemaking.

  • AEG conducted a comprehensive communications audit and accessibility review of Preserve Rhode Island’s website and social media platforms. The audit provided insights that allowed AEG to recommend immediate Tier 1 improvements. These included optimizing alt text, enhancing color contrast, improving text legibility, and simplifying the newsletter sign-up process to increase user engagement. Additionally, Tier 2 improvements were implemented, such as making the website more responsive, training staff in SEO, and optimizing the site’s information architecture to improve usability. AEG’s Tier 3 transformations included a potential website redesign, a more robust video content strategy, and incorporating SEO best practices to meet accessibility compliance. To support ongoing improvement, AEG offered training for staff on content creation, SEO management, and continued optimization of digital accessibility.

Contributors

Danielle Amodeo, Mina Kim, Timothea Pham, S. Von Harvey

Impact and Outcomes

The immediate changes implemented by AEG resulted in a more inclusive website and social media presence, with better accessibility features that improved both user experience and SEO performance. A more diversified and audience-focused content strategy helped broaden the organization's reach, showcasing community-driven stories and a wider range of Preserve RI’s initiatives. AEG’s detailed, phased, and tiered implementation plan has empowered Preserve RI with the tools and strategies needed to continue improving digital accessibility, storytelling, and communication efforts.

Conclusion

AEG’s comprehensive approach to digital accessibility and communications has positioned Preserve RI for long-term success. The organization now has a bolstered, more inclusive digital presence, with the tools and strategies in place to continue evolving its communications to better engage diverse communities. Moving forward, Preserve RI is well-equipped to reach a wider audience and further its mission of inclusive historic preservation.

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