“The world needs different kinds of minds to work together.” – Dr. Temple Grandin, Scientist and Author
Impact
Product owners and managers play a key role in communicating accessibility requirements early in the project lifecycle, ensuring each team member knows their responsibility and keeping the team accountable for building accessible products.
Accessible digital products and services enhance trust in government, drive innovation, and extend service reach.
Including accessibility in design from the beginning of a project reduces technical debt, avoids rework and saves money.
The goal of accessibility at the State of Colorado is to build web services that are usable by everyone, not to meet minimum standards and avoid lawsuits.
Your Responsibilities
- Understand the State Accessibility Technical Standards and best practices for meeting compliance guidelines for technology.
- Ensure that accessibility is included in product planning and prioritization from the very beginning of the project and during continuous improvement cycles.
- Integrate accessibility acceptance criteria into user stories.
- Include compliance with state accessibility standards in the “definition of done” for all product increments.
- Incorporate both automated and manual accessibility testing into development sprints.
- Understand the value of the assessment and remediation tools that are available, like Siteimprove.
- Purchase only technology that is accessible and compatible with assistive technology.
- Understand how to create accessible documents and presentations.
- Stay updated on accessibility best practices.
What You Can Do
Learn more
- How to Meet WCAG 2.1 AA (Quick Reference), W3C
- Accessibility for Teams, accessibility.digital.gov
- Planning and Managing Web Accessibility, W3C
- Planning for Accessibility, A List Apart
- The Four Principles of Accessibility (POUR), W3C
- Accessibility for Procurement
Evaluating a website or application for accessibility
We cannot check all accessibility using a tool alone. Human judgment is required because automated tools may give inaccurate results.
Evaluate accessibility early and throughout the process to find and fix problems early. This will save you time and money in the long run.
Testing Resources:
- Template for Accessibility Evaluation Reports, W3C
- Involve Users Early, W3C
- How I do an accessibility check (Video), A11ycasts
- WCAG Compliance Checklist, A11yproject
- Easy Checks – A First Review of Web Accessibility, W3C
- How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference), W3C
Evaluation Tools
State Agency Planning Resources
IT Accessibility Planning Guide
The IT Accessibility Planning Guide website is made available only to state agencies for the purpose of providing guidance, tools and updates that are relevant only to state agencies and their unique statutory requirements. The Technology Accessibility Program team (TAP) has made every effort to provide similar, relevant resources available to local government entities (see Local Government Resources).
Contact: oit_accessibility@state.co.us
Local Government Planning Resources
Accessibility Planning for Local Government, 2023 (Google Slides)
This presentation is designed to help local government teams understand their responsibilities and provide basic guidance for planning and operationalizing accessibility. Similar guidance can be found on the Accessibility Planning Core Criteria webpage.
- Colorado Laws for Persons with Disabilities
- Planning tools and guidance
- Links to more information and resources
Contact: oit_accessibility@state.co.us