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State of Colorado Accessibility Newsletter - June 2025

Black Woman with disability recording a song in wheelchair

Accessibility News
Guidance for Rules Compliance

Compliance options and updated planning template

The compliance requirements in the rules have been updated in section 11.5, Compliance Requirements, to clarify the options for compliance, including the option of providing a published accessibility plan. TAP has provided an updated plan template for guidance if that is the path that a government entity chooses to take:
Example: Evidence of Progress on an Accessibility Plan (Google Doc)

Accessibility statement requirements update

TAP has provided an updated statement template that includes the minimum requirements within section 11.6, Technology Accessibility Statement Requirements. Example: Technology Accessibility Statement (Google Doc)

Decision making and documentation

Refer to the Undue Hardship, Undue Burden, Fundamental Alteration, or Direct Threat 11.10 to learn about documentation and final decision making when determining if meeting the rules would cause "undue hardship," "undue burden," "fundamental alteration," or a "direct threat."

Accessibility and You
Keeping Cognitive Disabilities in Mind with Design

By Rosa Calabrese, TAP Senior Accessibility Trainer

Designing for cognitive disabilities is a difficult aspect of web accessibility, and even the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) cannot fully capture the nuanced needs of people with these disabilities. Cognitive disabilities exist on a spectrum of many diverse conditions and functions. While I have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), my experiences with accessibility can be quite different from people with traumatic brain injuries, autism, dementia, Down syndrome or other types of cognitive challenges.

Despite the difficulty of meeting the needs of people with such varied experiences and abilities, WCAG does provide some criteria for making digital content more accessible to people with cognitive disabilities, and many items overlap with the accessibility requirements for other categories of disability.

For example, consistent navigation and page structure are beneficial to people with cognitive disabilities because of the predictable browsing experience created when items like Menu, Home, and Search are found in the same spot on all pages. Consistent navigation and page structure may also be useful to screen reader users who can browse pages more easily when page items don’t change location.

Learn more about page structure and other important parts of website accessibility on the OIT website.

Woman with amputated arm stands in a living room and uses a smartphone

Accessibility Essentials
Five Quick Tips for More Accessible Content Creation

Think you’re not a content creator? Think again! A content creator is anyone writing documents, or creating, designing, publishing or editing content online. Content includes text, PDFs, images, videos and audio files. Content creators must ensure  accessibility from the beginning of the creation process. Here are a few quick tips on making your content accessible.

  1. Include descriptive links. Write "Review our accessibility guide" instead of "Click here."
  2. Use real text. Feature actual screen-reader friendly text rather than text within images.
  3. Offer keyboard-friendly navigation. Make sure visitors to your site can explore it without a mouse.
  4. Skip the complicated jargon. Stick to simple, clear and direct language.
  5. Test your content with real users. Incorporating feedback from customers’ lived experiences is crucial.

Notable & Quotable

“The truth is, the status quo loves to say no. It is the easiest thing in the world to say no, especially in the world of business and finance. But for the first time we were discussing civil rights, and no other civil rights issue has ever been questioned because of the cost.”

- Judith Heumann, author of “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist”