1. Website Accessibility
Murrieta Valley Unified School District
March, 2017
Website Accessibility

2. What does ‘Accessible’ mean?
“The degree to which a website is available to as many people as possible.” Website accessibility is guided by internationally accepted expectations and standards known as Website Content Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG 2.0

3. Who Does Accessibility Benefit?
Everyone
20% of the population have unique needs navigating their world.
1 in 5 people have accessibility issues due to disability or age
Visual –blindness, low vision, color blindness
Physical – loss of a limb, reduced/limited mobility, epilisy, vertigo
Cognitive – ADHD, Dyslexia, Autism, intellectual disabilities
Auditory

4. WHY is ACCESSIBILITY IMPORTANT?
OCR- U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights
ADA – Americans with Disabilities Act
Section 504 –1973 Rehabilitation Act guarantees rights of people with disabilities
Section 508 – Amendment to Section requires accessible online content
Title 11 – Prohibits discrimination based on disability
U.S. Department of Justice issued new accessibility rules for websites in 2010
WCAG 2.0 Adopted in January, 2017 & goes into effect in January 2018
Accessibility is a civil right and we have an ethical and legal obligation to provide a comparable website experience for everyone.

5. Is this new? Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are not new
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) started in 1994
Accessibility requirements have been in place in the United Kingdom since 1995 and in the US since 1998
The current version of WCAG 2.0 was published in 2008
Web accessibility is required for doctors’ offices, recreational facilities, stores, restaurants, schools, colleges, airlines

6. MVUSD Accessibility Strategy
Accessibility Policy on all websites
Board Policy 1113 District-sponsored websites updated 2/17/17
Contract with Site Improve – weekly scans
Dedicated Accessibility Team comprised of District Webmaster, Schoolwires, Technology Staff, Webmasters, Content Editors
The goal is to address issues and make content accessible going forward
This is an on-going process - not a project
No website will ever be 100% accessible

7. So What are accessibility issues?
Images require alt text describing content of image
Links – self-describing links identifying the target of the link
Headings on every page to organize content
PDF’s
Use of Color
Blind person working on a computer in class

8. Making content ACCESSIBILe
Fonts – Don’t use font styles such as bold, italics or underline to indicate importance
Multi-media – video and audio must be close captioned if they are embedded on our site – otherwise, provide a link to the media on You Tube or another external site.
Tables - Insert descriptive labels for columns and rows using HTML markup that indicates content of rows and columns

9. Images Use appropriate, descriptive ALT text for all images
Don’t include “picture” or “image” in alt text
Use simple, succinct language to describe exactly what the image is.
No blinking images or animations
Check the images on your home page in headlines
Boy in a Grinch costume holds a Dr. Seuss book

10. Links & Downloads
Links – self-describing Identify the target of the link i.e “click here for more information about sea lions"
Not “click here” or “more info”
For links to documents day “Download a copy of the calendar” or “Download a text- only version of this page”
Use this
Click here to go to the MVUSD website
Not this

11. Headings Headings on every page to organize content
Use H1 heading in Schoolwires styles
Heading should describe topic or purpose of content

12. PDF PDFs – create from source documents
Don’t scan – if the text cannot be copied it is is likely inaccessible.
Save as PDF, not print to PDF.
Format Word and PowerPoint documents with appropriate headings, tags and formatting and style options that are available in all Office programs

13. Use of COLOR Color contrast between text color and background
Don’t use color alone to convey information

14. Resources & questions
The international resource on web accessibility is the Web Accessibility Initiative
MVUSD Website Accessibility training Staff/Instructional Technology/Schoolwires/Accessibility
WCAG Overview
Getting Started with Web Accessibility
Accessibility Handbook