[blind-democracy] FW: [leadership] FW: EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SETTLES CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINTS OVER ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES

From: "Charles Crawford" <ccrawford@xxxxxxx>
To: <FedAccessibility@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2016 10:40:56 -0400

Hi Fed Access and Blind Demovracy folks,

I saw this from Mitch Pomerantz and thought you would find it particularly
interesting.  About time, eh?

Charlie Crawford.

Education Department Settles Civil Rights Complaints Over Accessible Websites

Accessible Websites

By Christina Samuels

June 29, 2016

The U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights announced Wednesday
that it has settled complaints in seven states and one territory over issues
related to websites that are not accessible to people with certain disabilities.

The department had found that websites were not using text descriptions, also
known as “alt tags,” on important images. Text descriptions, when used with
special software, help blind or visually impaired people understand all the
information on a website.

Other concerns that the department raised:

·         Some important website content could only be accessed by people who
can use a computer mouseanother hurdle for those with vision impairments or
problems with fine motor control;

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

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

The entities under investigation by the office for civil rights settled with
the Education Department while the probes were still underway.

The parties involved in the settlement are: the Juneau school district in
Alaska, the Guam Department of Education, the Montana School for the Deaf and
Blind, the Santa Fe district in New Mexico, the Washoe County district in
Nevada, The Davidson Academy of Nevada, the Nevada Department of Education, the
Oregon Department of Education, the Granite district in Utah, the Bellingham
school district in Washington, and the Washington state office of
superintendent of public instruction.

The entities voluntarily committed to be monitored by OCR and to take several
steps, including auditing existing online content, making sure all new website
content is fully accessible, posting a notice to people with disabilities about
requesting access to currently inaccessible information, and providing website
accessibility training to their personnel.

“As schools, school districts, states, and territories turn to the internet as
a way to provide relevant and up-to-date information to their audiences in a
cost-effective manner, they must make sure they are not inadvertently excluding
people with disabilities from their online programs, services, and activities,”
said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, in a statement.

<http://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/blogs.edweek.org?p=eyJzIjoibVgxY0tFeURzdUxpTTVlOVhUSENCRVNsU3BBIiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4OTk3NSxcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwOlxcXC9cXFwvYmxvZ3MuZWR3ZWVrLm9yZ1xcXC9lZHdlZWtcXFwvc3BlY2VkXFxcLzIwMTZcXFwvMDZcXFwvZWR1Y2F0aW9uX2RlcGFydG1lbnRfc2V0dGxlc19hY2Nlc3NpYmxlX3dlYnNpdGVfY29tcGxhaW50cy5odG1sXCIsXCJpZFwiOlwiYzU5MmJiYmE0ZDQwNDNjNGEyNjg1ZDFhNGViNWNhZDNcIixcInVybF9pZHNcIjpbXCIzOGYwYTM0YmU4YTgzOWE5NzRiNDhhZjhlNGJiM2MyMGRhOThjOTEzXCJdfSJ9>

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2016/06/education_department_settles_accessible_website_complaints.html

Image removed by sender.

[blind-democracy] FW: [leadership] FW: EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SETTLES CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINTS OVER ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES

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