By Stan Sarber
Overview
Making government products and services usable by people with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, it is also a legal requirement.
Problem
Many government websites, digital services and mobile apps were created without accessibility in mind. Community members with disabilities often find it frustrating (or impossible) to use these services.
Inaccessible services also expose local governments to litigation risks. Many local governments are aware that accessibility is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) but don’t know how to ensure accessibility of their services.
Solution
Public agencies should treat accessibility as a high priority and not as an afterthought. Government services should be designed with accessibility in mind. This means including someone with accessibility expertise in the early stages of digital projects.
Governments also need to know how to hire vendors who understand the importance of accessibility and are compliant with accessibility standards.
Context
Most local governments know that making their digital assets such as websites, mobile apps, and PDFs accessible is important. But what does it actually mean?
Understand who needs accessibility
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 adults in the United States live with a disability. There are different types of disabilities, for example:
- Vision: blindness, low vision, color blindness
- Mobility: hand tremors, paralysis
- Hearing: deafness, hard-of-hearing, audio processing disorders
Digital accessibility means that digital products are usable by people with disabilities. Some common accessibility features are:
- High contrast (vision)
- Sufficient touch areas on mobile devices (mobility)
- Video captions (hearing)
- Alternative text for images (vision)
- Keyboard navigation (mobility)
- Accessible PDFs
The de-facto standard for digital accessibility is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There are three levels of compliance: A, AA and AAA. Many government agencies and organizations strive to meet Level AA.
Accessibility is hard
Some local governments employ people dedicated to accessibility, but often they are not technical enough to communicate what needs to be done to make digital products accessible. Even when accessibility is identified as a requirement, it may be unclear how to actually implement it, how to vet vendors for compliance, or how to educate on-staff developers.
Put someone in charge
It’s hard to get accessibility projects off the ground. Designate an accessibility lead to set goals and timelines, hold the team accountable, and verify quality.
Invest in training
Everyone working on digital service projects can benefit from training on accessibility fundamentals. When every team member understands the basics of accessibility, it’s easier to “bake in” accessibility into your projects.
Audit, fix, test
To make digital content accessible means to:
- Audit the digital products for accessibility using software tools and manual testing.
- Apply fixes to the underlying code of the application or via a content management system.
- Re-test the content to verify that issues have been fixed properly.
Fix easy issues first
Using free tools like WAVE, Lighthouse or Contrast Checker, you can identify common issues such as insufficient contrast ratio, missing text alternatives, accessibility labels or video captions. Even someone new to accessibility can fix these kinds of issues.
For more complex issues, you may need to contract with a vendor specializing in digital accessibility.
Accessibility is not easy and can be confusing to navigate both the legal and technical landscape. However, it is achievable with some process improvements and technical help.
Mantras
- Aim for progress over perfection
- Enthusiasm and empathy are superpowers
Checklist
- Choose an accessibility lead. This person will drive the accessibility initiatives.
- Survey your digital products and audit them to determine which are not accessible.
- Collect accessibility reports and determine who will do remediation work.
- Do the work or delegate it to someone else.
- Run an audit again to verify improvements.
- Create an accessibility statement and include it with your digital content.
Questions to ask
- Who can we assign to be the accessibility lead?
- Do we have internal resources to do accessibility audits or should we hire a vendor?
- Can we run a training program to educate employees on digital accessibility?
- Do we have PDFs to remediate?
- Do we have digital products (websites, apps) to audit?
- Who can run the audits and fix issues?
Learn more
- An Introduction to Accessibility, Digital.gov67
- Introduction to WAVE, WebAIM on YouTube68
- Improving the Accessibility of Social Media in Government, Digital.gov69
- Developing an Accessibility Statement, w3.org70
- Why AI & Overlay Widgets Fail to Protect or Serve, Accessibility Works71
- Web Accessibility Guidelines in 7 Minutes, GoDaddy on YouTube72