ACCESSIBILITY
Message from Dan Gibbs, DNR Executive Director
DNR employees along with all State Departments are establishing more accessible digital communications and IT systems for Coloradans. About 1.5 million Coloradans have some kind of disability that hinders them from gaining equal access to information and communications. To assist DNR employees to incorporate accessibility communications in their day-to-day work we have created this DNR accessibility page which includes resources, background information, contacts, and training. Check out DNR’s accessibility page below and thank you for engaging in this important process for DNR.
Below, you’ll find information and resources to help all people throughout all levels of DNR to practice digital accessibility. If you have questions about the DNR’s accessibility program efforts, please contact hannah.cohen@state.co.us. To request accommodation as an employee or ask questions about ADA rules, contact richard.fields@state.co.us.
You can visit the Office for Information Technology’s Guide to Accessible Web Resources for more information on accessibility at the state level. Click here to access OIT’s website.
What is Accessibility?
When websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with them effectively.
Web accessibility is built upon four principles known as POUR, created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
Perceivable
The ability to be aware of digital content through the senses, including sight, hearing, and touch.
Operable
The design of the document, website, or application must support alternative and user-controlled ways to interact with the content.
Understandable
The content should be written as clearly and simply as possible and the interface should be understandable to users.
Robust
Content must be written so that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of tools, including assistive technologies.
Failure to follow these principles means that you are failing accessibility.
Colorado Accessibility Legislation: House Bill 21-1110
House Bill 21-1110 expands on the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) by applying a specific focus on the accessibility of government information technology (IT) for all individuals with disabilities (not just vision problems).
Signed in June 2021, the bill states that any Colorado government entity that doesn’t comply with OIT’s Accessibility Technical Standards by July 1, 2024, could be subject to:
injunctive relief, meaning a court order to fix the problem.
actual monetary damages.
or a fine of $3,500 payable to the plaintiff, who must be someone from the disability community.
Inaccessible technology can interfere with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. When our state IT systems are inaccessible, we unfairly exclude people who need to access our information or services; this was the reasoning behind recent accessibility legislation.
The DNR’s Responsibility
All divisions and personnel under the DNR umbrella are required to comply with OIT’s technology accessibility standards.
This applies to every employee who communicates over email, participates in meetings, creates documents and presentations, contributes content to websites or applications, manages social media, and develops or manages IT products or services.
Community partners and vendors must also provide equitable access to digital communications, websites, apps, and software.
To comply, our digital properties must meet A and AA criteria for WCAG 2.1 by July 2024.
Steps to Accessibility Compliance
To meet accessibility standards, we must complete the following steps.
Inventory: Record all internal and public-facing digital properties including websites, applications, technologies, and communication platforms (including social media).
Identify: Determine who owns or manages said properties (DNR or vendor)
Vendor-owned or managed: division representatives must communicate needs with them. The most common way to ensure a vendor is compliant is via the request for or creation of a VPAT. Enterprise vendors like Laserfiche and ESRI make this information readily available on their websites.
Prioritize: Evaluate inventory and test results of applications, websites, and technologies.
You can find the prioritization criteria created by OIT/TAP here.
Test: Evaluate, test, and document the results of digital content and application audits owned or managed by the DNR.
Plan: Create plans to address areas of inaccessibility, with the end goal of creating accessible and responsive systems for our constituents.
Many divisions have hundreds or thousands of documents, multiple websites, old technologies, and other records. It may not be possible to remediate or fix accessibility issues by July. That’s when we focus on documentation and providing viable paths to requesting accommodations.
Document:
Document accessibility transition plans, digital inventories, and other records. The OIT/TAP (or Technology Accessibility Program) team, in addition to accessibility coordinators and program managers, are working to create guides and templates to make this possible.
Remediate: Implement fixes wherever possible.
Accommodate: Provide paths to request accommodation.
Most digital products will not be fully accessible by 7/1/2024.
By July, all websites must have an accessibility statement and a link or button to a form where readers can request accommodations.
Accommodation requests will be sent to members of the accessibility governance team who will acknowledge the request promptly. Then begins the process of supplying remediated documents, alternative paths to access information or other solutions.
Personal Identifiable Information and any other identifiable information will be kept confidential in a compliant and secure manner by our ADA personnel.
Learn: Attend virtual and in-person training opportunities. Utilize available guides and checklists.
Contacts and Changemakers
DNR Accessibility Program Contacts
Program and Training Questions: Hannah Cohen, Accessibility Program Manager
Concerns about compliance with HB 21-1110: Division Directors and Windi Padia, Chief Operating Officer
Program Budget: Division Fiscal Managers and Cameron Bellamy, EDO Budget & Policy Analyst IV
Division Contacts
Colorado Avalanche Information Center: Jake Barney
Colorado Parks and Wildlife: Kirk Teklits
Colorado Water Conservation Board: Carolyn Kemp
Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety: Susan Burgmaier
Division of Water Resources: Laura Nelsen
Energy & Carbon Management Commission: Megan Adamczyk
State Land Board: Kristin Kemp
DNR Accessibility Champions: Coming Soon!
This will serve as a place of recognition for members of the DNR who’ve gone above and beyond in accessibility work. These champions deserve recognition for their efforts and can be nominated by coworkers. More information soon.
Accessibility Resources
Introduction to Digital Accessibility
Digital Accessibility Guides and Checklists
Please note the following resources contain the following media types. The media type and creator are indicated next to the resource name.
Presentations: Slides or multi-page PDFs
Checklists
Guides: Instructions located on web pages, docs, or single-page PDFs
Videos: Videos recorded with voiceover
Tools
Documents
Google Docs
Microsoft Word
Google Sheets
Excel Spreadsheets
Maps
Images and Alt Text
Color Contrast
Presentations
Google Slides
Microsoft PowerPoint
PDFs
Checklist for Accessible PDFs (CDA)
Tagging PDFs
Testing and Remediating PDFs
Converting Google Docs to PDFs
Converting Google Slides to PDFs
InDesign
Forms and Surveys
How to post PDFs to a website
Meetings
Email
Social Media
Audio and Video Media
Accessibility for Developers
Training Opportunities
DNR is committed to creating a culture of accessibility and will provide a variety of training opportunities related to IT accessibility to support this mission. While adapting to these requirements has many benefits, we acknowledge that undergoing training, updating content, and remediating content applications will impact your routine.
Training currently available includes courses from OIT, Section 508, and SOC Learns. We are undergoing a modernization effort with our learning platform and expect to have exciting new options by the end of the fiscal 23-24 year.
Vendor-Provided Training Courses
OIT Level Access Academy
Access Academy has 15 OIT-created training courses organized by employee role. To request a seat in Access Academy, complete the Access Academy Sign-Up Form. Once you’ve signed up, select your role below to be taken to the course description(s) for that category:
Section 508
Section508.gov contains training courses provided by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to help agencies comply with federal accessibility requirements (Section 508) and ensure digital content and properties are accessible to, and usable by, individuals with disabilities.
SOC Learns
SOC Learns offers training courses designed to help anyone interested in the basics of ensuring their digital products and services are usable by all individuals, regardless of their abilities.
Stay tuned for training announcements and notice of office hours to be held by Hannah!
Make Your Email Signature Accessible:
One thing you can do now is create an accessible email signature! Please follow these instructions to ensure you’re using accessible fonts, colors, images, and alt text, or reference the presentation below.
Additional Resources
TAP offers Accessibility Open Office Hours at 9:00 AM on Thursdays. To be added to the meeting invite, please email OIT_Accessibility@state.co.us.
OIT also offers an accessibility newsletter from the Technical Accessibility Program (TAP). Please sign up!
Digital Accessibility Terms to Know
A11y - Accessibility
Accessible or accessibility means perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust digital content that reasonably enables an individual with a disability to access the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services offered to other individuals, with the same privacy, independence, and ease of use as exists for individuals without a disability. C.R.S. 24-85-102(1.5)
AT - Assistive Technology
Any tool or device that helps people with disabilities perform tasks they may otherwise find difficult or impossible (e.g. screen readers)
TAP - Technology Accessibility Program (OIT)
VPAT - Voluntary Product Accessibility Template
A document that explains how information and communication technology (ICT) products conform to IT accessibility standards.
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
The organization that develops international standards for the Web: HTML, CSS, and more.
WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative
A working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that develops standards and support materials to help you understand and implement accessibility.
WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Provides a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. These guidelines not only help make web content accessible to users with sensory, cognitive, and mobility disabilities but ultimately help all users, regardless of ability. Levels of conformance: A, AA, AAA.