This document discusses the importance of information accessibility and addresses common myths. It provides an overview of relevant laws and standards, examples of accessible organizations, and steps organizations can take to develop an accessibility strategy. These include using structured headings and tables, adding alt text to images and media, ensuring fonts can be resized and colors contrast. The document also notes that while the legal requirements for web accessibility are still developing, the Department of Justice endorses WCAG 2.0 Level AA as the technical standard.

1. Just How Accessible Is Your Information?
Vencer Cotton
Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind
Betsy Fanning
AIIM

2. A Conversation Worth Having
• A real story
• The added value of being accessible
• Do the right thing
• Myths about accessibility
– Accessibility = ugly
– Accessibility = breaking the bank

3. Harness the Power of Partnership
• Where Things Stand:
– Legal status
• There are no specific published technical requirements that define how the ADA is applied to the
Internet. Different circuit courts and the Department of Justice have different positions. This is a
developing legal area and knowledgeable counsel is critical.
– ADA Enforcement
• The Department of Justice: enforces based on WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines as the technical
standard.
• State and Local: depending on your state, you could get pressure from state and local agencies or
the State Attorney General
• Advocacy Groups: Pursue litigation to accomplish access
• Plaintiff’s Counsel: ADA-focused plaintiff’s attorneys are actively pursuing web-related claims,
especially in recent months
– Dealing with Demand Letters
• What To Do First (Hint: Don’t call CLB)
– Counsel is critical
– Either your in-house legal team or external counsel
– Majority of demand letters we’ve seen are boilerplate and rely principally on automatic
testing results, not expert testing
– Your legal counsel can create a plan alongside a technical consultant like CLB

4. Harness the Power of Partnership (cont.)
The Tools We Use
• Assistive Technologies
– Examples of assistive technology for ICT
user:
• Screen readers
• Refreshable Braille displays
• Screen magnifiers
• Onscreen or other special keyboards
• TDD/TTY and video relay devices
• Text-to-speech software
• Word prediction software
• Screen readers and screen magnifiers are the
most common types of assistive technology
used by persons who are blind or visually
impaired
• CLB Services
– Free limited audits
– Competitively-priced comprehensive
audits
– Periodic monitoring
– Training
– General and specific consultations
– Strategic accessibility policy creation and
implementation
– Referral program

5. How Accessible?

6. Why Information Accessibility?
• 19% of population has some disability (U.S. Census)
• 12% of population deals with migraines (Migraine
Research Foundation)
• 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 women have color
blindness (Colblindor)
• 75% of adult population use vision correcting
products (Vision Council of America)
• 20% of Internet users have visual impairment
(AccessibilIT.com)
• 1 in 3 adults experience blindness or partial sight
loss as age (AcessibilIT.com)

7. Accessibility Guidance
• U. S. Access Board, federal agency promotes equality for people
with disabilities – Section 508 Refresh January 2017
– Incorporates WCAG by reference for web content
– Incorporates ISO 14289 by reference for accessible PDF files
• U. S. Rehabilitation Act, Section 508, Electronic Access to
Information
• U. S. Rehabilitation Act, Section 504, Protecting Students with
Disabilities
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act
• UN Accessibility for the Disabled
• Canadians with Disabilities Act

8. Document Accessibility Standards
• ISO 32000, Document management – Portable Document
Format (PDF)
• ISO 14289-1, Document management applications – Electronic
document file format enhancement for accessibility – Part 1:
Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)
• ISO/CD 14289-2, Document management applications -
Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility –
Part 2: Use of ISO 32000-2 (PDF/UA-2)
• WCAG, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Worldwide Web
Consortium)
• Technical Implementation Guide PDF/UA
• Technical Implementation Guide PDF/UA and ISO 32000-1
• Achieving WCAG 2.0 with PDF/UA

9. Accessible PDF Files
• Searchable text – Scanned image text is not accessible
and can be made accessible with OCR
• Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text – need
to include enough information about the fonts so the
extraction can determine how to map the font to Unicode
characters
• Do not rely on colors or sensory characteristics to convey
meaning
• Make sure your colors contrast sufficiently
• Have controls for audio
• Do not use flashing or blinking – can cause a seizure in
matter of seconds

10. Accessibility Examples
• U. S. Department of Homeland
Security (2013)
• U. S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) (2009)
• Target.com (2008)
• H&R Block (2013)
• Canadian Federal Government (2010)

11. What Can Be Done?
• Develop an Information Access Strategy
• Use defined structural headings, lists and
data tables
• Add descriptive alternative text for images,
embedded music, etc.
• Eliminate flashing or blinking objects
• Ensure fonts can be resized
• Make colors contrast

12. Myth #1
There’s only a small audience for
accessibility.

14. Myth #2
Waiting for problems is just as easy as
doing it now.

15. Myth #3
Accessible design interferes with
design.

16. • Vencer Cotton, Senior Director of
Technology and Training
• Phone: 240-737-5137
• Email: vcotton@clb.org
• For general inquiries, please visit our
website at www.clb.org and click on
the light blue “Contact” button at the
top of the homepage:
• Betsy Fanning, Director, Standards
• Phone: 571-218-9817
• Email: bfanning@aiim.org