• Click here to view the recorded webcast.
• Click here to download the presentation.
• Click here to download the Q&A. 

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STG Accessibility Bingo

This fun game will help guide is through some of the most basic things to check for when doing an accessibility audit.  Download your “bingo” card today to help follow along with the presentation.  

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Serving every resident: Why digital accessibility matters

This article written for MTA’s Focus Magazine by municipal Web developer Kyle Shumaker (Shumaker Technology Group) and municipal attorney Michael Bila (Bauckham, Thall, Seeber, Kaufman, & Koches, P.C.) breaks down the new law’s requirements, exceptions, and common issues that may affect Michigan Township Websites.  

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Shumaker Tech Group (STG) ADA Page

This page, provided by STG, houses a variety of useful resources about ADA compliance for Michigan municipalities.  It will be updated as new resources become available.  Subscribe to our email list to be alerted when a new post is added.  

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Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments

This fact sheet from ada.gov is the gold standard for information on the new requirements and exceptions.  

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State and Local Governments: First Steps Toward Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Web and Mobile Application Accessibility Rule

This resource from ada.gov breaks down the compliance process into 11 action steps.  

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Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the primary international organization that develops open standards (like HTML and CSS) to ensure the web remains accessible, secure, and interoperable, essentially creating the rules and guidelines for how the web works.  This page, specifically, outlines the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1.  While this page outlines Levels A, AA, and AAA, note that your municipal website must comply with the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard.  

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How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) also provides this “Quick Reference”  with examples of how to meet (or fail) each of the criteria.  

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NV Access – Non Visual Desktop Access

Non Visual Desktop Access is a free screenreader provided by NV Access that people with disabilities use on their computer.  It can be useful in testing your site and documents.  

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NVDA instructional video: basic commands for navigating a website

Provided by Perkins School for the Blind this 9 minute video guides you through the basics of using NVDA to navigate a Website.  

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JAWS® Screen Reader

The JAWS Screen Reader is a paid (free trial available) alternative to NVDA and offers some advantages if you have a large number of pages and documents to audit.  

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WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) is a prominent non-profit organization based at Utah State University dedicated to making the web more accessible for people with disabilities.  Their WAVE tool (available on their Website or as a Chome Add-on), allows you to run a webpage through their automated tool and get feedback on the accessibility of page that was scanned.  Like all automated tools, this can’t catch everything, but it can help provide a quick idea of how you’re doing and help you learn things you may be doing wrong.  

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Understanding Document Accessibility: A Reference for Creating Accessible Office Documents

A free book available from Digital Education Strategies (The Chang School) on how to create accessible documents.  

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The A11Y Project 

The A11Y Project is a community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier.  They have an ever growing list of resources available to aid in your accessibility journey.  

• Checklist
• Browser Extensions
• Vision Simulators
• udemy

For those “do it yourselfers” udemy has a variety of pre-recorded courses dealing with various aspects of accessibility.  

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FTC Approves Final Order Requiring accessiBe to pay $1 Million

Those who mistakenly believe that adding an accessibility widget (also known as overlay widget) will keep them from being sued may wish to review a recent Federal Trade Commission order fining accessiBe $1 million dollars and prohibiting them from making misleading statements about their product’s capabilities.  They may also want to review industry discussion about whether or not accessiblity overlays actually benefit the disabled.