Building more accessible government websites

It is imperative that governments adhere to web accessibility guidelines. Most importantly, because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it will increasingly become a legal issue for governments who don’t actively adhere to these standards.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a broad government policy, not specific to technology, however, there are aspects that of it that government technology leaders must bake into their digital services.

As a government technology vendor, it is our responsibility to be continuously proactive and translate ADA into a comprehensible, useable and actionable tool that governments can independently use and feel empowered and comfortable knowing they’re in compliance, serving all members of their communities.

Web accessibility is complex and intimidating to the layperson. ProudCity has spent a significant amount of effort to help simplify understanding and adherence, and we continuously work to ensure governments meet universal digital accessibility requirements.

Here’s how ProudCity holistically, universally and continuously addresses government website accessibility.

ProudCity accessibility features

Every government website on the ProudCity platform is guaranteed these accessibility features:

• Level AA Conformance: Adherence to technical and legal accessibility standards
• Accessibility checker (coming soon): Page-specific accessibility status review and reporting
• Keyboard tabbing: Sequential navigation and page link tabulation
• Image alt text: Image text description editing that supports screen-reading devices
• Form labeling: Default and editable form field descriptions
• Commitment pages: Templated government accessibility policy page (example)
• Semantic markup: Built-in and editable, structured HTML page markup
• Jump links: Anchor links to a specific in-page location
• Aria attributes: Object role definitions (videos, forms, articles, alerts, buttons, etc.)
• Font size adjustment: Page text size adjustment
• Sitemap: Dynamic website sitemap with direct links to all pages
• Device adaptability: Automated device adaptability (screen reader, mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop)

ProudCity Accessibility Checker

Coming soon, the ProudCity Accessibility Checker helps governments understand and stay updated on pertinent accessibility issues and continue to stay within AA compliance. PAC helps government website managers run accessibility reports, view errors/warnings, resolve these issues immediately and gives you complete confidence you’re meeting key accessibility criteria to best serve all members of your community.

PAC features include:

• Dashboard to manage page accessibility status
• Page pass, error, warning reports
• Create, view, export reports
• Accessibility help and resources

Stay tuned

PAC will soon move to beta testing for governments on the ProudCity Platform, and we’ll also publish a government website accessibility guide for the general community to help everyone better understand related policy and technical issues.

Stay tuned for more.

Learn about ProudCity Accessibility at proudcity.com/accessibility.