Accessibility in the News- May 28, 2021

Hello Everyone: As countries from around the world start to poke their heads out of the Covid-19 cloud that has engulfed the world over the last seventeen months, many people in the United States will be able to venture out this weekend to honor the fallen heroes from the many wars fought during our country’s history. The collective sacrifices of our deceased soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, and coast guard have afforded us innumerable freedoms and opportunities and we are forever indebted to each of them for their selflessness, bravery, and dedication to our country and its citizens throughout the ages.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable, safe and healthy Memorial Day weekend with your families and friends, and you are able to take the time to reflect, remember, and honor all of the living and dead military heroes from our long and storied history.

Sincerely,

Jack

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“It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.” – Norman Schwarzkopf

Memorial Day- May 31, 2021

Feature Stories

Accessible Birding for Every Body

May 13, 2021 | Source: Bay Nature

When I started birding in 2005, I went on each and every Golden Gate Audubon Society bird walk that I could: the rolling terrain of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, the meadows of Yosemite, the wild hills of the Sierras, the special patches in Golden Gate Park, any opportunity to see and learn about birds from some of the best birders in the area. But gradually my body started to switch gears, and after experiencing more and more unexplained, painful, and humiliating falls, I finally got the answer in 2012 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)…

Outdoor recreation is a challenge for differently abled, even when accessibility is promised

May 25, 2021 | Source: The Laconia Daily Sun

Just before embarking on the Mason-Greenville Rail Trail, Aislinn Graves proudly showed off her straw boater hat, full of pins from national parks from all over the country. “Most little girls, they want to grow up to be a nurse, or a ballerina,” Aislinn, who’d visited most of the national parks west of the Mississippi by the time she was seven years old, said. “Me, I wanted to be a national park ranger.” These days, Aislinn is back to immersing herself in nature on every trail she can manage in her new mobility scooter, which is only a fraction of the many hiking and walking trails scattered across the region…

Tired of being bogged down in the sand? Beach wheelchair access grows at Jersey Shore towns

May 27, 2021 | Source: NorthJersey.com

The Jersey Shore was synonymous with summer for Verona’s Scott Chesney, whose family vacationed in Lavallette every year until a stroke took his legs out from under him at the age of 15. Now 50, Chesney has stayed away for decades. The thin wheels of his wheelchair were too easily bogged down in the sand and made his idea of heaven on earth unreachable. For decades, wheelchair users had few options as beach wheelchairs with wheels large enough to navigate sand were in short supply, advocates and families said. But awareness, and mobility options, are finally growing at beaches across the state…

Playgrounds Designed With Accessibility In Mind Make Play Fun for Every Kid

May 27, 2021 | Source: The 74

When it comes to providing play opportunities to children with disabilities, not all playgrounds are created equal. On most playgrounds in the United States, complex play structures with lots of stairs and uneven ground coverings like woodchips or gravel make play inaccessible to kids who depend on mobility aids like wheelchairs or walkers. Traditional swings or narrow slides are inaccessible to kids who need a caregiver’s support or the extra safety feature of a harness to use them…

National News (U.S.)

Cutting the Curb: The Power of Accessibility Research

May 18, 2021 | Source: Medium- Yao Ding

“Usability and accessibility are twins separated at birth. Same goals but like two brothers in a fable, they took different paths: Accessibility took a legal rights path. This gave it power, but not a lot of love. Usability took a user research path. This gave it deep insights, but not a lot of power. What happens when these two meet? Can we get deep insights and great power?” The answer to Whitney Quesenbery’s question is undoubtedly yes. Every day at Facebook, accessibility user research is helping deep insights meet great power…

People with disabilities speak out about accessibility barriers

May 20, 2021 | Source: Dayton 24/7 Now

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a time to reflect on how to make our communities more accommodating and inclusive for people with disabilities. Despite 34-year-old Brandon Kilgore’s developmental disability, he can do just about everything he puts his mind to. “When people say that you are the most independent person I ever seen in my life, I take that as a compliment,” Kilgore said. He tells me in a world built for people who don’t get around on wheels, it makes something as simple as getting a ride home from his work a job of its own…

Meet the Disabled Streamers Who Are Transforming the Industry

May 20, 2021 | Source: WIRED

Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a celebratory event where businesses and individuals raise awareness and praise the ever-growing acceptance of digital accessibility and the disabled community. For 10 years, GAAD has utilized its platform to provide a voice for disabled individuals and highlight the shortcomings that continue to plague varying sites and companies. While corporations like Microsoft, Sony, and Logitech have created and prioritized accessible tech and inclusion, work remains…

Why Planning Education Should Embrace Universal Design

May 21, 2021 | Source: Planning- Steve Wright

For centuries, everything from a home entrance step to park benches has been designed for a 5-foot-10 able-bodied male, an approach that excludes a majority of people. Of the staggering one in four people who will experience a disability during their lifetime, a large portion will have limited mobility. But less than one percent of all housing in the U.S. is readily accessible to people who use wheelchairs. That’s evidence that all the inclusionary zoning, progressive housing policy, and equitable planning strategies of the past half century have failed people with disabilities…

What accessibility data is required on hotel websites

May 21, 2021 | Source: Hotel Management

Like a flood, cases challenging hotels’ compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act website rules keep coming. People with disabilities want information about accessible features so they can confidently book rooms online and travel independently and safely. Fortunately, a recent case clarifies what is required. A wheelchair-using would-be guest at the Gateway Hotel Santa Monica (Calif.) consulted the hotel’s website in search of a suitable room. He clicked on “accessible rooms” and “view details.” The type of room was described, as well as the size and number of beds and the type of accessible bathing facility…

Report finds inadequate conditions for blind, low-vision visitors at FDR memorial

May 20, 2021 | Source: WTOP

There are accessibility issues at a D.C. memorial honoring President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was unable to walk without assistance after a bout of polio when he was child. That’s the finding of a report presented Thursday by accessibility consultant Cheryl Fogle-Hatch. Fogle-Hatch told the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee that some of the barriers around the memorial’s fountains are inadequate, making the fountains dangerous in some spots. Visitors who are blind, like Fogle-Hatch, could also have trouble reading at the memorial…

Ex-MTA accessibility czar leaked confidential info to contractor: watchdog

May 20, 2021 | Source: New York Post

The former accessibility czar for New York City’s subways and buses quit last year after he violated ethics rules by giving an MTA contractor advance notice that its bid was going to be rejected — while firing off emails to transit officials imploring them to reconsider, the agency’s inspector general revealed Thursday. Alex Elegudin leaked the impending decision on Curb Mobility’s bid to operate taxis for disabled New Yorkers to a company exec, Jason Gross, in August 2020 — at the same time the contract selection committee met to make its final call, informing him that Curb’s bid was too expensive, IG Carolyn Pokorny said…

Aging in Place Comfortably and Stylishly

May 21, 2021 | Source: The New York Times

They never wanted to call it retirement, but for Susan Farnsworth, Leigh Hough and Jean-Philippe Jomini, a throuple — a romantic partnership of three people — that has lived together as an intentional family for over 15 years, it felt important to get a head start on finding a home that would accommodate future needs for aging in place. Three consultants in their mid-60s, they share a home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but decided a few years ago to look for a second home in southern New England, where they have friends and family. A string of open houses and home tours turned up nothing truly satisfactory…

Long Slide Looms for World Population, With Sweeping Ramifications

May 22, 2021 | Source: The New York Times

All over the world, countries are confronting population stagnation and a fertility bust, a dizzying reversal unmatched in recorded history that will make first-birthday parties a rarer sight than funerals, and empty homes a common eyesore. Maternity wards are already shutting down in Italy. Ghost cities are appearing in northeastern China. Universities in South Korea can’t find enough students, and in Germany, hundreds of thousands of properties have been razed, with the land turned into parks…

‘Mobility As A Service’ Concept Promises To Revolutionize Transport Accessibility

May 23, 2021 | Source: Forbes

Not everybody may have heard of the term ‘Mobility as a Service’ or MaaS, as it is referred to in the transport sector but if you’ve taken an Uber of late or even a regular taxi, there may be some familiarity with the basic concept. However, MaaS involves a lot more than just app-based ridesharing. It represents a completely new way of thinking about mobility and transportation, closely aligned to the genesis of the modern-day smart city. At its core, the idea is a relatively simple one…

Disabled Americans See Opening for Fixes to ‘Antiquated’ Transit

May 24, 2021 | Source: Bloomberg Government & CBS News

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs flying helicopter combat missions in the Iraq war, is waging a new fight: pressing authorities to deliver on a three-decades-old promise to make transit stations accessible to all. The Illinois Democrat toured renovations at Chicago Transit Authority stations after her election to the Senate. The authority’s director was excited the accessibility project would be completed within two decades, Duckworth recalled in an interview…

Meet the Nonbinary Michigan Powerhouse Who Has Revolutionized Gaming for the Disabled Community

May 24, 2021 | Source: Pride Source

Courtney Craven was napping in the bedroom when their partner Susan Banks — in the living room playing a video game — suffered a massive stroke and died. The couple had recently launched “Can I Play That?” (CIPT), a review site designed to let people know before they drop $60 on a new game whether it’s accessible to those with specific disabilities. Craven and Banks recruited a staff of disabled reviewers to weigh in on the newest games, building a robust online community of grateful readers…

Business owners expect their web agencies to take responsibility for web accessibility and inform them if their website is non-compliant

May 24, 2021 | Source: Baltimore Post-Examiner

Awareness for web accessibility is on the rise. From the client-side to the agency side, all parties involved are looking to make their and their client’s websites more accessible. This is partly a result of successful web accessibility awareness campaigns, but it is also due to an increase in website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal courts. Regarding the lawsuits, filings in federal courts significantly increased in 2020 from 2019, with consumer goods and apparel industries being hit the hardest with digital accessibility lawsuits…

Angry cyclist wants to see the rule that allows disabled man to ride motorized bike on the trail

May 24, 2021 | Source: Boing Boing (Video)

In this footage shot on a forest trail, a man intercepts another rider on an Outrider-style disability e-bike and demands he prove he is allowed to use it there. “Show me the rule saying you’re allowed to do this,” he says. Charitably, this is a good example of how ego takes over when a mistake is made and prevents one from apologizing and moving on. But it’s also hard to ignore other things—such as the other cyclist waving their nose as if the disabled person stinks—which suggest a more considered cruelty. In any case, a sterling advertisement for minding one’s own business…

CPS Clerk Who Uses Wheelchair Fighting To Keep Job, Says She’s Being Forced Out Due To Lack Of Accessibility

May 25, 2021 | Source: CBS Chicago

Parents and teachers gathered at a Southwest Side school Tuesday morning to demand Chicago Public Schools find the funding to keep a longtime clerk who uses a wheelchair. Friends, parents and teachers rallied around Judy Mahoney outside Byrne Elementary in Garfield Ridge on Tuesday. CPS moved Mahoney to Byrne after she was hit by a drunk driver in 2017, and left paralyzed from the waist down. At the time, she was working as a school clerk at Whittier Elementary in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, but that building is not wheelchair accessible…

From Off-road Wheelchairs to Therapeutic Surfing, Airbnb Is Offering Experiences and Stays With ‘Accessibility in Mind’

May 25, 2021 | Source: Travel+Leisure

With countries opening borders, and millions of vaccines rolling out each day, the return to travel is here. Truly, it couldn’t come at a better time with summer vacations just around the corner. And, to ensure everyone can live their adventurous lives to the fullest, Airbnb is highlighting ways “to get closer to nature through Experiences designed by hosts with accessibility in mind and places to stay with accessibility features.” In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May, Airbnb partnered with No Barriers, a non-profit organization that empowers people of all backgrounds and abilities to get out and explore nature…

MTA Capital Program To Improve ADA Accessibility For Subway Riders

May 25, 2021 | Source: Canarsie Courier

Commuting on the subway is hard enough for most commuters – having to deal with crowded subways, sweltering hot platforms during the summer months and transit delays – but for a person with a disability or injury, commuting in NYC can be a nightmare. A plan to make the city’s massive subway system more user-friendly is in the works. Community Board 18 (CB18) voted to approve a zoning text amendment which will allow the MTA to improve ADA access at transit stations citywide, improving the commute for transit riders with disabilities…

What Did the Pandemic Teach Chefs About Accessibility? A disabled food writer contemplates a return to restaurant dining rooms.

May 26, 2021 | Source: Grub Street

If COVID-19 shuttered New York restaurants like a tidal wave, then disability pulled me from their dining rooms like a riptide. I first fell ill with late disseminated Lyme disease in the early 1990s when I was 12 years old. That Lyme morphed into post-treatment Lyme-disease syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis, incurable post-viral neuromuscular illnesses that affect areas including the immune and nervous systems. These often degenerate as they progress, and every patient has a unique, erratic timeline…

NMWA becomes first organization in the state to offer accessibility to the colorblind

May 26, 2021 | Source: Buckrail

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) has partnered with EnChroma to help color blind guests experience a fuller range of colors in the artwork. EnChroma’s patented lens technology is engineered with special optical filters that help people with color blindness see an expanded range of colors more vibrantly, clearly and distinctly. The Museum is the first organization in the state of Wyoming to offer accessibility to the colorblind through the EnChroma Color Accessibility Program. Currently, NMWA carries two adult and one children’s pair of Enchroma’s glasses…

New York State Division of Human Rights announces settlements of accessibility complaints against Redbox, Coinstar, ecoATM

May 26, 2021 | Source: Niagara Frontier Publications

The New York State Division of Human Rights announced settlements of three disability discrimination complaints filed against kiosk companies Redbox Automated Retail LLC, Coinstar LLC, and ecoATM. The complaints, which were initially filed by the division’s initiated action unit, alleged that the companies’ kiosks were not accessible to individuals with visual impairments. As a result of the settlements, the companies have agreed to modify kiosks throughout New York state in order to ensure access for individuals with visual impairments. The companies will also pay civil fines to the state of New York totaling $85,000…

What It Takes to Make a Restaurant Accessible to Everyone

May 26, 2021 | Source: The Wall Street Journal

When I first met Yannick Benjamin, in 2013, he was working at Le Dû Wines, a retail shop in the West Village of New York City. Until a car accident 10 years earlier left him paralyzed from the waist down, Mr. Benjamin had been a sommelier. This June, almost 18 years after the accident, Mr. Benjamin is set to open his own fully accessible restaurant, Contento, in East Harlem, New York. The story behind the creation of Contento and Mr. Benjamin’s personal and professional resilience resonates deeply right now as New York and the rest of the world recover and restart…

Attention Hotel Operators: Have You Been Served with an ADA Website Reservation System Lawsuit?

May 26, 2021 | Source: Godfrey & Kahn

As you gear up for the 2021 travel season, your website reservation system’s compliance with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is probably one of the last things on your mind. Unless, of course, you’ve been hit with one of the many ADA lawsuits that have recently befallen hotels around the U.S. Claims under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) take many forms, but all stem from the same principle: places of public accommodation, like hotels, motels and other places of lodging, cannot discriminate against disabled individuals…

To Manage Bias And Shame Like A Pro, Try This Approach

May 26, 2021 | Source: Forbes- Denise Brodey

“Many employers have been shown to harbor sincere yet ill-founded views about the work-related abilities of people with disabilities; these negative views are often a result of interrelated concerns that permeate the entire employment cycle,” according to research published in Journal of Business and Psychology. Bias, bullying and negativity keep many job seekers and employees who have been diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, depression, treated addiction or chronic pain tightly guarding their personal health details…

Accommodating voters with disabilities

May 27, 2021 | Source: Freedom to Tinker

Citizens with disabilities have as much right to vote as anyone else, and our election systems should fully accommodate them. In recent years some advocates have claimed that electronic ballot return, in other words internet voting, is needed to accommodate voters with disabilities. But internet voting is dangerously insecure–in the context of U.S. public elections there is no known technology that can secure vote-by-internet against hacking by insiders or outsiders…

Justice Department Settles with Maine School District to Protect Educational Rights of Students with Disabilities and English Learners

May 27, 2021 | Source: Department of Justice

Today the Justice Department announced a settlement agreement with the Lewiston Public Schools to end the district’s systemic and discriminatory practice of excluding students from full-day school because of behavior related to their disabilities. The settlement also will require the district to provide equal educational opportunities to its English learner students. The department conducted its investigation under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA) after receiving a complaint from Disability Rights Maine…

Jack Fact — A report from Dyslexia and Literacy International says at least 1 in every 10 people suffer, or around 700 million people worldwide, are dyslexic.

Hit The Road Jack — Striving for Herd Accessibility in Travel & Accessible Travel News

International News

The Best Parks for People with Disabilities Aren’t in Vancouver

May 20, 2021 | Source: TheTyee- Canada

If you ask Arnold Cheng where his favourite park is, he’ll tell you about Centennial Beach, in Tsawwassen. At the edge of Boundary Bay, the park is a paradise of vast tidal flats popular with birds and beachgoers alike, and a great place for people to safely gather outdoors during the pandemic. It also provides a rare oasis of accessibility for wheelchair users like Cheng. Built-in ramps provide easy access to nearby washrooms. A special mat allows wheelchairs to access the sandy beach without getting stuck…

Disabled People Fear Being Left Behind as UK Culture Venues Reopen

May 21, 2021 | Source: The New York Times- UK

Before the pandemic hit Britain last year, Michelle Hedley could only go to her local theaters in the north of England if they happened to be doing a captioned performance. That happened five times a year — at best, said Hedley, who is deaf. But during the pandemic, suddenly, she could watch musicals all day and night if she wanted, as shuttered theaters worldwide put shows online, often with subtitles. “I started watching anything and everything simply because I could!” Hedley, 49, said in an email interview. “Even subject matters that bored me!” “I viewed more theater than I had done (it felt like) in a lifetime,” she added…

Halifax passes long-awaited accessibility strategy

May 21, 2021 | Source: The Coast Halifax- Canada

When the province passed the Act Respecting Accessibility in Nova Scotia in 2017, it told municipalities to do two things: Set up an accessibility advisory committee and build an accessibility strategy. Halifax, quite chuffed about having an accessibility advisory committee since 1997, got to work pulling together all the pieces that would make up its mega-doc accessibility strategy, and this week it was unanimously approved by Halifax Regional Council. The existence of a sweeping strategy for accessibility in HRM is a win for everyone…

Paralympic athletes break down barriers on Great Trail of Canada

May 22, 2021 | Source: CBC- Canada & CBC Video

Greenway trail users invited to weigh in on problematic areas for people with disabilities

May 25, 2021 | Source: CBC- Canada

A group of Paralympians are on the path to making the Great Trail of Canada more accessible through a partnership that’s helping break down barriers for those with mobility issues. Trans Canada Trail partnered with both Canadian Paralympians and AccessNow, an online platform that uses crowd-sourced information to detail the accessibility status of locations around the world. Together they mapped out 13 sections of the Great Trail, formerly the Trans Canada Trail, across the country, looking for barriers that existed and also noting areas that already had good accessibility…

Grimsby Library leads region in accessibility for the hard of hearing

May 22, 2021 | Source: Niagara Falls Review- Canada

Grimsby library is the first library in the Niagara Region to install Induction Loop – a special type of sound system used to enhance communication for people with hearing aids. The project was initiated by Grimsby resident Gordana Mosher who is the accessibility projects and communications manager at the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. “After this we hope to have it rolled out throughout the Niagara region, it should be the objective for many places that are customer facing,” she said…

Hertfordshire stations mapped for blind and partially sighted passengers

May 22, 2021 | Source: In Your Area- UK

Extra support for passengers with disabilities using Greater Anglia trains

May 25, 2021 | Source: East Anglian Daily Times- UK & Echo- UK

Blind and partially sighted passengers will find it easier to navigate Stevenage station now that Great Northern and Southern have installed another RNIB tactile map. The update, by parent company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), completes an annual £700,000 investment at 33 stations across the network, including changes to 11 stations across Hertfordshire, making small but important improvements based on customer feedback as part of its journey towards making services more accessible…

‘Malta needs to do more for inclusion of persons with disability’

May 22, 2021 | Source: Newsbook- Malta

Labour backbencher Oliver Scicluna said Malta still has plenty of work to do for the inclusion of persons with disability, especially in education, employment and accessibility. Speaking on Andrew Azzopardi on 103, the former Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability said that although the sector has made huge strides forward over the years, he reiterated his commitment to keep the rights of persons with disability at the very top of the country’s agenda…

Amanda Motyer brings unique perspective to Peterborough’s accessibility design

May 22, 2021 | Source: My Kawartha- Canada

Years after the Peterborough Human Society’s new animal care centre opens, Amanda Motyer will know she had a hand in it. In fact, she will have had her fingers on several Peterborough projects. Motyer, a project lead at Lett Architects Inc., was the architect for the new comfort station in Beavermead Campground and the new washroom pavilion in Nicholls Oval Park. She also worked on the design for Peterborough Sport & Wellness Centre renovation and is part of the team designing the city’s new fire station…

Accessibility legislation delays prolong inequities for NZers

DFNZ- May 24, 2021 | Source: Voxy- New Zealand

Delays in nutting out the detail of new accessibility legislation are frustrating and detrimental to the wellbeing of close to three million New Zealanders-, says Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand (DFNZ). The Government has already committed to introducing critical legislation to accelerate accessibility, enabling New Zealand to become more welcoming and accessible for disabled people and others with accessibility needs, for example through being neurodivergent, blind/low vision, and/or ageing…

Qatar aims to deliver outstanding FIFA World Cup experience for people with disabilities

May 24, 2021 | Source: Gulf Times- Qatar & The Peninsula Qatar

Fans with disabilities will be provided access to a range of digital content as Qatar aims to make the next FIFA World Cup accessible to as many people as possible, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has stressed. In a statement yesterday, the SC works closely with local organisations to ensure that content on its website, mobile apps and digital documents can be enjoyed by all fans, irrespective of their accessibility needs. The SC’s Accessibility Forum – comprising people from across Qatar’s disability community – has proved vital in supporting efforts to deliver the most accessible World Cup in tournament history…

Belinda ensures online banks are accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities

May 24, 2021 | Source: Market Sreener- Norway

Belinda Venemark has worked as a designer at TietoEVRY for 11 years. While she’s lost count of how many digital-banking products she’s been involved in creating, Belinda knows one thing for sure: accessibility is now more important than ever. For Belinda, accessibility is all about inclusion. ‘As society becomes even more digitized, it’s self-evident that people who are blind should also be able to pay their bills online – just like any other user. Or that the elderly, sometimes with tremors that cause their hands to shake, can easily use the mobile apps made by TietoEVRY,’ she says…

Weather-forecasting service dog grows social media following, grows awareness for mobility issues

May 25, 2021 | Source: The Globe & Mail- Canada

Kuno’s day job is being a service animal to his owner, Marla Smith, helping her manage her new life in a wheelchair after she became a double amputee two years ago. But it’s his unique side job, as a weather broadcasting Rottweiler who adds a dash of advocacy for accessibility issues in his daily reports, that has earned him a following online. Ms. Smith, who suffers from a neuro-inflammatory illness, began training the 130-pound dog to be her mobility assistance animal in May, 2018, in Edmonton…

The erosion of accessible parking for people that use mobility devices

May 26, 2021 | Source: Delta-Optimist- Canada

In the mid-1970s (handicapped) accessible parking spaces began to appear in the Lower Mainland. They came about because a group of people that used wheelchairs and drove their own cars found they were unable to independently get their wheelchairs out of the vehicle because the parking spots were too narrow. As such wider spaces were introduced in the BC Building Code and a decal of sorts was developed to identify a ‘qualified disabled driver’…

Microsoft’s new accessibility commitment, and what it will mean for the UAE workplace

May 27, 2021 | Source: Gulf News- UAE

More than 1 billion people live with a disability and yet they remain one of the world’s largest untapped talent pools. Research suggests the cost of workforce exclusion among people with disabilities can represent as much as 7% of GDP in some countries. But some are starting to take notice. ‘The Valuable 500’ disability inclusivity and accessibility tracker revealed that 39% of companies are now more aware than ever of the issues – mostly due to COVID-related lessons – and many are taking action…

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Have you received an accessibility demand letter because of your website or application? Please contact us for any questions you have about our accessibility services and how we might support your organization.

Services include:

Accessible Website and Application Development— We rely heavily on accessibility best practices and using HTML5 and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) standards to build WCAG-compliant and human-tested accessible environments. Our teams are proficient in open source technologies such as WordPress, Drupal and Moodle, as well as custom frameworks in .NET, PHP, AngularJS, and other frameworks. Our Learning and Development team can also help you create accessible custom training.
Accessible Document Services— Whether you’re dealing with a few or a warehouse of Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, or other files, there are several ways Microassist can enable your team to offer documents and materials that meet stringent accessibility standards.
Accessibility Remediation— Our accessibility remediation services help you fix existing materials so that they conform to WCAG, Section 504 and 508, Department of Education OCR, and ADA Title II/III requirements. We remediate websites, applications, documents, and elearning, recommending re-creation when that is more efficient and economical. Especially for website and applications, to find out what is in need of remediation, we’ll start with an Accessibility Audit.
Accessibility Training— With several courses available for developers, testers, and content creators, your team can become equipped to consistently and expertly produce accessible digital products and online environments.
VPAT^®Evaluation Services— Primarily used by government purchasers and government vendors during the procurement and sale of ICT products and services under Section 508, a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template^® (VPAT) attests to the accessibility of a given product or service. Contact us to make sure the VPAT you write or review is accurate and meaningful.