Rewriting Our Accessibility Statement

In our continued commitment to increasing the platform's accessibility standards and guidelines, we've recently updated the GeorgiaGov platform's accessibility statement, which can be found in the footer of all of our state agency websites.

Although the awareness of physical and cognitive disabilities has been considered for decades, accessibility is still a relatively new idea for the web. Most companies and organizations are still catching up to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Section 508 standards. The Web Accessibility Initiative was just created in 1997 with support from The White House and W3C members, and in 1998 the Rehabilitation Act was amended with Section 508, requiring all federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities.

As web accessibility standards are becoming increasingly pertinent to organizations and mandated for government agencies, it's important to supply an accessibility policy statement. Providing an accessibility statement expresses a commitment to your users in creating, maintaining, and improving accessibility standards within your website. It should provide content that is accurate, applicable to the audience, and has purpose.

When reviewing the GeorgiaGov platform's statement, we made sure to keep those key points in mind. Our statement was written using clear, simple language that all users (including those with cognitive disabilities) can understand, states accessibility standards and guidelines our websites meet, provides how users can contact us for help and information if they’re having trouble, and includes the date the accessibility statement was last updated.

Take a look at our new accessibility statement, and you might even be surprised to see some of the ways your website meets accessibility standards and guidelines.

Related to: 

• Accessibility
• CMS