Digital Accessibility Plan

Approved June 18, 2024, Updated November 2024 

I. Accessibility Standards

In accordance with Colorado law, the District is committed to applying standard configurations for technologies and services, in accordance with the technical standards provided by:

  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1 Level AA or higher;
  • Section 508 of the S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Chapters 3,4,6; and
  • R.S. 24-85-101 to 24-85-104, ARTICLE 85.

II. The District’s Efforts

The district is committed to providing accessible digital information to all people. The district will engage in continuous efforts to make online services and digital communications accessible to the public, including equal access for persons with disabilities. The district will prioritize, evaluate, remediate, and continuously improve its online services and digital communications. 

III. Accessibility Maturity

The district is at the following maturity level for 2024: 

Check One Stage Criteria
Inactive No awareness and recognition of need. At this stage organizations are inventorying their technology, have begun to make investments, etc….
Launch Recognized need organization-wide. Planning initiated, but activities are not well organized.
        X Integrate Roadmap including a timeline is in place, overall organizational approach defined and well organized.
Optimize Incorporated into the whole organization, consistently evaluated, and actions taken on assessment outcomes.

IV. Maturity Level Discussion

The district has encountered the following challenges: 

The district currently has limited staff resources to perform this work due to the foundational work required to set up equipment and systems for the district. This has slowed the progress in 2024. The district plans to hire a third party to review the website periodically, audit the posted documents and external links and update those not in compliance. 

The district has enjoyed the following successes: 

The district has performed an evaluation of the website and posted documents, corrected obvious compliance issues, written a digital accessibility statement and developed a plan and timeline for compliance. The district has made notable progress implementing the plan by improving staff training on website and document accessibility, developing procedures for identifying and effectively addressing accessibility issues on the website, and creating processes to ensure software purchased going forward meets accessibility requirements. The Board of Trustees approved the accessibility statement on May 28, 2024, and the statement is posted on the library website https://boulderlibrary.org/website-accessibility-statement/. 

V. Organizational Measures

The district has taken the following measures: 

  • Defined an accessibility roadmap including timeline, goals, roles, responsibilities, and policies as needed for our organization. 
  • Incorporated accessibility into our procurement 
  • Conducted an inventory of all technology, prioritized remediation, validated through testing, and addressed issues. 
  • Created and implemented a plan for providing reasonable accommodation and modification until the technology can be made accessible. 
  • Engaged a website accessibility vendor to make the district’s front-facing web pages accessible. 
  • Validated through testing that all front-facing web pages are compliant with WCAG 1 Level AA. 
  • Provided the current plan for July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, contact information, and support for receiving and addressing accessibility feedback. 
  • Defined and implemented a process for reporting and rapidly responding to accessibility issues/grievances. 
  • Enhanced staff training on website and document accessibility. 
  • Made substantial progress in obtaining VPATs from inventoried software. 
  • Addressed accessibility issues on our website including issues with online job applications. 
  • Updated our software purchasing process to include accessibility review. 
  • Added an accessibility component to contracts. 

The district has designated its Compliance Officer to coordinate and implement the plan. 

The district’s compliance officer’s contact information is: 

Boulder Public Library District
1001 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, CO 80302 

Attn: Aimee Schumm, Compliance Officer Phone No.: (303) 441-3100