Wireless RERC - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

Justice Dept. Announces Accessibility Agreement with Florida Courts

mz22 — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 13:53:28 +0000

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

Justice Department Reaches Agreement with Orange County Clerk of Courts in Florida to Ensure Equal Access to Court Records

July 2014 – The U.S. Justice Department has announced a settlement with Florida’s Orange County Clerk of Courts to resolve violations regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Orange County Clerk of Courts allegedly failed to provide accessible court documents to a blind attorney, despite repeated requests. The attorney’s appeal for electronic documents, accessible by screen reader technology, was not provided in an accessible format for over four months.

The Orange County Clerk of Courts has agreed to a settlement, providing individuals with disabilities with any official court record document in an accessible format upon request. In accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA requirements, the Clerk of Courts will also make their website accessible to individuals with disabilities, including the blind. Additional settlement conditions include $10,000 in retribution and WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility training.

W3C Introduces New Method to Help Evaluate Websites

mz22 — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:50:21 +0000

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Web Accessibility

Website Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0

July 2014 – The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative published a new document to help developers assess the accessibility of websites in addition to web and mobile applications. Titled Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM), the document provides a methodology developers can use to test websites and apps for conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. In general, WCAG 2.0 focuses on individual web pages. Given as a series of five steps, the guidelines walk developers through defining an evaluation scope, exploring the target website, selecting a representative sample of individual pages from the site, and auditing the sample. While the WCAG-EM does not replace WCAG 2.0, it provides a first step to evaluating more comprehensive websites.

H&R Block Will Make Website and Apps Accessible

mz22 — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:41:01 +0000

H&R Block

U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

DOJ Press Release

March 2014 — H&R Block has entered into a five-year consent decree with the Department of Justice (DOJ). The decree follows complaints by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and two individual plaintiffs that H&R Block violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to ensure accessibility on their website and mobile applications. The complaints highlight that the website and mobile applications are incompatible with many assistive technologies such as screen readers and refreshable Braille displays and failed to provide other accessibility features such as keyboard navigation or captioning. Under the decree, H&R Block will work to enhance the accessibility of their services by ensuring that their website and mobile apps are in compliance with Level AA Success Criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 by January 1, 2015, appointing a web accessibility coordinator, and providing accessibility training for all web content personnel. H&R Block has also been ordered to “pay $45,000 to the two individual plaintiffs, and a $55,000 civil penalty.” Acting Assistant Attorney General, Jocelyn Samuels, notes, “This landmark decree ensures that individuals with disabilities will have an equal opportunity to independently and conveniently obtain information and complete taxes as others do. H&R Block is to be commended for working with the NFB and the Justice Department in resolving to take such steps.”

W3C Proposes New Recommendations for Web Applications

mz22 — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 20:14:48 +0000

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Apps

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

W3C Proposed Recommendation

February 2014 — The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Protocols and Formats Working Group published proposed recommendations regarding Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). The document outlines “ways to make web content, particularly web applications, more accessible to people with disabilities.” Complementing the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the proposed recommendations provide developers with guidelines to ensure that dynamic content or interfaces developed with Ajax, HTML or JavaScript, are accessible for people with disabilities and operable with assistive technologies. Comments on the draft can be sent to mailto:public-pfwg-comments@w3c.org and are due by March 7, 2014.

Louisiana Tech to Change Policies Following ADA Settlement

mz22 — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:50:46 +0000

U.S. Department of Justice

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0 AA)

DOJ Press Release

July 2013 — Louisiana Tech University and the Department of Justice have reached a settlement regarding allegations that, in violation of the ADA, the University used an “online learning product” that was inaccessible to a blind student in addition to not providing the student with accessible course materials in a subsequent course. The settlement will require the University to reimburse the student for $23,543 in damages, while ensuring that all instructors and administrators are trained on the requirements of the ADA. In addition, the University will be required to develop new policies including policies to ensure all technology and instructional materials are accessible to people with vision disabilities and all web pages and online courses are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 AA). Of the settlement, Eve Hill, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, note, “emerging technologies, including internet-based learning platforms, are changing the way we learn, and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded or left behind.”