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SUNY Web Accessibility Effort

On January 14, 2009, the NYS Office for Technology (OFT) released a revised Policy (NYS-P08-005), entitled "Accessibility of Web-based Information and Applications". This new policy replaced and superseded Technology Policy P04-002 and Technology Standard S04-001 (Accessibility of State Agency Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications) and became effective immediately.

The policy consists of three parts:

Part 1 – State agency Content Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities;
Part 2 – Notice and Contact Information; and
Part 3 – Procurement of Content Design, Development, and Maintenance.

Part 1 addresses the compliance of new and existing content, stating:

"All new content, high-traffic pages (defined as home pages and critical path pages) and medium-traffic pages will comply with this policy immediately. Low-traffic pages will be brought into compliance when the content of the page changes."

Part 2 addresses notice and contact information. It states:

"State agencies will post contact information (email address and telephone number), with respect to accessibility for persons with disabilities, on their web sites to enable individuals to contact the state agency. Such links will be posted, at a minimum, in the footer of the state agency's home page and be clearly distinguished from any other link found in that footer."

Part 3 addresses procurement of Web site design, development, and maintenance services. It specifies language for all solicitations, contracts, and amendments involving the creation of content for the web, to the effect that the content created by the contractor and any subcontractors must also adhere to the Policy and the standards in its Appendix A. This excludes portions of an intranet, the Internet or an extranet that are outside the control of the state agency or the third party.

Appendix A of the policy provides standards for state agencies to comply with the above-mentioned policy. It applies to content, Web-based applications, plug-ins, applets, on-line documents, forms and multi-media and consists of 14 standards. They are:

Text Equivalents for Non-text Content;
Use of Color of the Conveyance of Information;
Document Structure;
Navigation and Links;
Flicker/Blink;
Timed Responses;
Tables;
Frames, Context, and Orientation;
Image Mapping;
Audio Only;
Multimedia;
Scripting;
Forms; and
Downloadable/Embedded Objects

Appendix B contains best practices to aid agencies in complying with the standards in Appendix A.

Campuses are individually responsible for maintaining Web accessibility.

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