Accessibility Progress Report in Compliance with 24-34-802, C.R.S.

Summary

The Colorado Department of State (Department) is working to make sure all services, programs, and activities are accessible to provide equal access to information and services to all Coloradans.

The Department follows the web accessibility guidelines of the Governor’s Office of Technology (OIT), which are in accordance with technical standards provided by:

As of October 1, 2024, the Department’s website is 92% accessible based on SiteImprove. The Department continues to update and improve accessibility to its website, prioritizing highly trafficked and public-facing pages and documents.

Progress

In an ongoing effort to make its online presence accessible, the Department continues to prioritize, evaluate, remediate, and continuously improve every digital touchpoint within its services, programs, and activities.

Below are the measures that the Department has undertaken, and is continuing to undertake, to improve accessibility in our online presence.

Organizational measures and status

  • Define an accessibility roadmap including goals, roles, responsibilities, and policies as needed for the Department.
    • Complete.
  • Maintain an inventory of technology, prioritize the accessible needs of the technology, update the technology for accessibility, and validate through testing and address issues found in current technology.
    • Complete: Maintain an inventory of technology and prioritize updates for accessibility.
    • In process: Update the outward facing technology for accessibility 65% complete; improve accessibility for non-public facing application (internal applications) 30% complete; manually test outward facing technology for accessibility.
  • Acquire technology to meet accessibility testing needs and to support accessible online meetings, presentations, and videos.
    • Complete: Tech for testing (SiteImprove, Browser Stack, JAWS); embedding videos (AblePlayer); Zoom for online public meetings and presentations.
    • In process: Tech for captions and transcription (estimated completion: July 1, 2025).
  • Create and implement a plan for providing reasonable accommodation and modification until the technology can be made accessible. 
  • Create and publish a policy for external individuals and entities to file accessible documents with the Department.
  • Provide contact information for receiving accessibility feedback and accommodations requests.
  • Create a tracker for accessibility feedback and requests.
    • Complete.
  • Train current and incoming Department staff on providing accessible services and technology, drafting accessible documents, and conducting accessible online meetings
    • Complete: Training of 20 staff members for remediation of documents, tech, and webpages completed June 18, 2024.
    • Complete: Training for all staff members on creating accessible documents completed September 23, 2024; training for 40 additional staff members on remediating PDFs for accessibility, creating accessible forms and PowerPoint, and Excel documents completed September 30, 2024.
    • Complete: Training for staff holding accessible online meetings completed August 31, 2024.
    • In process: Training for incoming staff will be on a rolling basis.
  • Incorporate accessibility requirements into the Department’s technology development stages including design, development, user experience, and quality assurance.
    • Complete and ongoing.
  • Create and post on front-facing webpages a progress report that is updated quarterly and demonstrates concrete and specific efforts toward compliance with the OIT rules. (Last updated October 1, 2024)
  • Maintain an inventory of documents/pages on the Department’s website, prioritize the accessible needs of the documents and pages, update the documents and pages for accessibility, and validate through testing and address issues found in current documents and pages.
    • Complete: Inventory list and priority list.
    • In process: Update active documents and pages for accessibility.
      • Business & Licensing Division: 73.4% complete (1037 documents processed out of 1412)
      • Elections Division: 84% complete (12,782 documents processed out of 15,206)
      • Administration Division: 97% complete (5,388 documents processed out of 5,527)
  • Receive a 80% accessibility score or higher for website accessibility, as tested by SiteImprove, for the Department’s website, regardless of pages or documents that are not in “active use” or pages that would require the Department to take an action that would fundamentally alter the nature of its programs, services, or activities, impose an undue burden, or pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others. [1]
    • Complete (4/11/2024).
  • Procurement and vendor management: integrate accessibility criteria across the Department’s solicitation, evaluation and contract processes and use these integrated processes to improve the accessibility of the Department’s product/service offerings.
    • In process
  • Human Resources: include accessibility skills in the Department’s job descriptions and hiring process, supervise department-wide accessibility training, set accessibility goals, and track progress through performance evaluations.
    • In process.

Formal approval

Christopher P. Beall
Deputy Secretary of State

 

Last Updated on October 1, 2024.

 

[1] 8 CCR 1501-11, Rules 11.3 & 11.4 (PDF).