Website Accessibility –Its Importance and Meaning...Website Accessibility –Its Importance and Meaning •The Internet is important communication tool used by school districts to

© 2017 National School Boards Association. All Rights Reserved. 1

“Seyfarth Shaw” refers to Seyfarth Shaw LLP (an Illinois limited liability partnership).©2016 Seyfarth Shaw LLP. All rights reserved.Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Mary Kay [email protected]

Seyfarth Shaw LLP131 S. Dearborn

Chicago, IL 60603312-460-5000

©2016 Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Website Accessibility – Its Importance and Meaning

• The Internet is important communication tool used by school districts to provide critical information to both students and their parents.

2Image of Earth with a banner around the center containing the text "http://www."



Website Accessibility – The Legal Issue is a Hot Topic

• Even though important to all persons entitled to and/or seeking information through the Internet, not all websites are designed to give persons with disabilities equal access to information and services online. As a result, the legal issue of whether or not websites are accessible to individuals with disabilities has become a hot topic for public school districts, their administration and teachers.

3Image of five flames in a horizontal line.


Website Accessibility – Its Importance and Meaning

• “Website accessibility” has been defined to mean that "people with disabilities can access the web" by the Web Accessibility Initiative, a project of the international standards group called the World Wide Web Consortium. See https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php.

4Close-up image of a computer keyboard focusing on a key labeled "Accessibility" and containing the International Symbol of Access.



Laws That Apply to Public Schools and the Accessibility of Their Websites

• The legal requirements underlying web accessibility requirements for school districts are based on Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

5


Laws That Apply to Public Schools and the Accessibility of Their Websites –Title II of the ADA

• Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the “basis of disability in all services, programs, and activities provided to the public by State and local governments, except public transportation services.” Individuals with disabilities must have equal access to the recipients’ programs, services, or activities unless doing wo would fundamentally alter the nature of the programs, services, or activities, or would impose an undue burden. 28 C.F.R. § 35.164.

6



Laws That Apply to Public Schools and the Accessibility of Their Websites –Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act protects the rights of

individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. Specifically, it states that “no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . ” 29 U.S.C. Section 794(a).

7


Barriers Which May Be Faced by People With Disabilities When Accessing Websites

• Posting images on webpage without text equivalents

• Posting documents in an inaccessible format such as PDF

• Specifying colors, font sizes, layout, etc. for webpages

• Posting videos and other multimedia without accessible features

8



Logos with Text – Not Accessible

9


Logos with Text – Accessible

10



Alternative Text Tags

11

<img src="images/pic.jpg" alt="Square wooden tiles form the words "back to school" scattered on a notebook">

<img src="images/pic.jpg" alt=“pic">


Hyperlinks – Not Accessible

12



Hyperlinks – Accessible

13


Assignments – Not Accessible

14



Assignments – Accessible

15


Standards and Guidelines for Website Accessibility

• Standards and/or guidelines for website accessibility which are applicable to school districts have not yet been established by either the Department of Justice or the Department of Education.

• The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offered by the World Wide Web Consortium address facets of making websites more usable.

• The Department of Justice and Department of Education recognize the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines as an industry standard for web content accessibility.

• The federal government has recently adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Levels A and AA as its accessibility standard for federal agency websites.

16



WCAG 2.0 Guidelines – Basic Standards

•Perceivable

•Operable

•Understandable

•Robust17


Standards and Guidelines for Website Accessibility

Excerpt from recent resolution agreements reached between public educational entities and the OCR state:

“Benchmarks for Measuring Accessibility. For the purposes of this Agreement, the accessibility of online content and functionality will be measured according to the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA and the Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 for web content, which are incorporated by reference.

Adherence to these accessible technology standards is one way to ensure compliance with the District’s underlying legal obligations to ensure people with disabilities are able to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same benefits and services with the same timeframe as their nondisabled peers, with substantially equivalent ease of use; that they are not excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or otherwise subjected to discrimination in any District programs, services, and activities delivered online, as required by Section 504 and Title II and their implementing regulations; and that they receive effective communication of the District’s programs, services, and activities delivered online.”

See Resolution Agreements at http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/settlements-reached-seven-states-one-territory-ensure-website-accessibility-people-disabilities

18



OCR Involvement

• The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) pursues enforcement of website accessibility as part of its authority to conduct “compliance reviews” under the ADA.

• On June 29, 2016, they reported that they “ha[d] reached settlements with education organizations in seven states and one territory to ensure website accessibility for people with disabilities.” See Settlements Reached in Seven States, One Territory to Ensure Website Accessibility for People with Disabilities, (June 29, 2016), http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/settlements-reached-seven-states-one-territory-ensure-website-accessibility-people-disabilities.

19


DOJ and OCR Involvement and Recent Developments

• Website issues found by the OCR : • Important images were missing text descriptions, called “alt tags,”

that describe the images to blind and low-vision users who use special software;

• Important content of the website could only be accessed by people who can use a computer mouse, which meant that content was not available to those who are blind, many who have low-vision, and those with disabilities affecting fine motor control;

• Parts of the website used color combinations that made text difficult or impossible for people with low vision to see; and

• Videos were not accurately captioned, so they were inaccessible to people who are deaf.

See Settlements Reached in Seven States, One Territory to Ensure Website Accessibility for People with Disabilities, (June 29, 2016), http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/settlements-reached-seven-states-one-territory-ensure-website-accessibility-people-disabilities

20



Components of Resolution Agreements with OCR

• School districts and other educational entities have entered into Resolution Agreements with the OCR and through these Agreements have voluntarily committed to make their websites accessible through a range of actions which require OCR review and approval at key stages.

21


Actions to Address Website Accessibility in Resolution Agreements

• Affirming the commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities have opportunities equal to those of others to enjoy the recipients’ programs, services, and activities, including those delivered online

• Selecting an auditor who has the requisite knowledge and experience to audit content and functionality and identify barriers to access on the existing website for people with disabilities

• Conducting a thorough audit of existing online content and functionality

• Adopting policies and procedures to ensure that all new, newly added or modified online content and functionality will be accessible to people with disabilities (cont.)

22



Actions to Address Website Accessibility in Resolution Agreements

• Making all new website content and functionality accessible to people with disabilities

• Developing a corrective action plan to prioritize the removal of online barriers

• Posting a notice to persons with disabilities about how to request access to online information or functionality that is currently inaccessible

• Providing website accessibility training to all appropriate personnel

See Settlements Reached in Seven States, One Territory to Ensure Website Accessibility for People with Disabilities, (June 29, 2016), http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/settlements-reached-seven-states-one-territory-ensure-website-accessibility-people-disabilities

23


DOJ Involvement and Recent Developments

• The Department of Justice has been engaged in the rulemaking process on website accessibility under the ADA, but no regulations have been finalized.

• In 2010, the DOJ issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking indicating the intent to promulgate regulations under Title II and Title III of the ADA to address requirements for website accessibility. The proposed regulations have not yet been released, and the DOJ has delayed its release several times.

24



DOJ and OCR Involvement and Developments

• In May, 2016, DOJ issued a Supplemental Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SANPRM) titled Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities.

• The SANPRM contemplates that WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards will be the standard for web content and that entities will have two years after final adoption to comply.

• Through this SANPRM, DOJ sought comments on various issues to help shape and further the rulemaking.

• On January 9, 2017, the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the “Access Board”) announced a final rule, under the authority of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring the websites and electronic content of federal agencies to conform to WCAG 2.0 AA within one year of the date the rule is published.

25


DOJ/OCR Complaints and Federal Litigation Is Rising Despite Lack of Regulations

• Lawsuits and threats of litigation are on the rise.

26



Website Accessibility Matters, and It Matters Now

• The ADA’s/Section 504’s mandates has been interpreted to require websites to be accessible.

• Accessibility means more than just the parts of a district website that are "public-facing" or accessible by students and parents.

• Accessibility concerns can be raised about internal web interfaces including internal systems that teachers use to submit grades, or that are accessed by potential job applicants.

27


Website Accessibility Matters, and It Matters Now

• Bottom Line: School websites, even without formal technical standards, should be monitored with consideration given to whether or not the online content is accessible to individuals with disabilities.

28



Responsibility Falls on All Content Creators

• Examples of what to consider:

• Is a school secretary uploading a scanned version of a school lunch menu that can't be read by a screen reader?

• Is a history teacher posting inaccessible PowerPoint presentations as study guides for her students?

29


Some Ideas On What to Do

• Until federal regulations are available, educational settings should consider taking all possible steps to make their websites accessible.

• By implementing the WCAG 2.0 guidelines to the extent possible, public agencies with web presence can work to ensure equal access for users with disabilities.

30




• A school or school district might consider usability testing which will help identify problems with accessibility but will also identify other problems that might not be on a district's radar screen, such as if a person is struggling to load a site on a tablet, or if the site is too bandwidth-heavy for a user who does not have access to high-speed internet.

• School districts can also explicitly require that accessibility be a requirement when seeking website vendors.

31



• Audits: Auditing a website will identify barriers that may be present to individuals with disabilities for use of a district’s website. Several organizations offer tools and checklists that web developers can use to check websites for accessibility.

• Training: Training of staff responsible for content to the district’s website will assist in assuring accessibility on an ongoing basis.

32



QUESTIONS

33Image of gray question marks with one larger red question mark in the middle.


THANK YOU!!!!

34

Mary Kay [email protected]

Images of presenters facing straight ahead and wearing dark clothing.

Documents

Website Accessibility –Its Importance and Meaning...Website Accessibility –Its Importance and Meaning •The Internet is important communication tool used by school districts to