Digital Accessibility Quarterly Reports and Accessibility Plan

Accessibility Plan

1. Digital Accessibility Statement: Boulder County has posted a Technology Accessibility Statement on all public-facing web pages, including information on how to request reasonable accommodations.
2. Website Compliance Tool: The county has implemented Siteimprove, a third-party compliance and analytics tool, to measure accessibility compliance and identify digital content that needs remediation. This tool generates weekly reports identifying pages and content with accessibility issues, broken links, misspellings, etc.
3. Website Workflow Approval: All webpages must be reviewed for accessibility compliance before they are published.
4. Training for Boulder County Employees: The county provides digital accessibility training for digital content creators. This training includes all areas of digital content, including but not limited to websites, documents, forms, social media, newsletter, news releases, emails, videos, podcasts, and kiosks. Each county department and employee is responsible for creating accessible content.
5. Document Accessibility Remediation Tools: Content creators were provided with content accessibility remediation tools such as Commonlook PDF, Commonlook Office, and Adobe Acrobat Pro, as well as support training.
6. Vendor Collaboration: Work with current and future vendors to ensure accessibility is incorporated into vendor-supplied applications and public-facing websites as well as reviewing VPATS on file.
7. Reasonable Accommodation Process: The county has established a reasonable accommodation process for employees and members of the public coordinated by our ADA coordinator. This includes a dedicated phone number that routes callers to the ADA Coordinator for support or assistance accessing public information.
8. Procurement: The County Attorney has included accessibility language and requirements to meet accessible outcomes in contracts.
9. Grievance Process: The county has established a grievance process with our ADA Coordinator.

Boulder County is committed to delivering digital content that works for all users. We value each visitor to our websites and strive to ensure a positive experience for everyone.

If you require assistance, please contact Boulder County’s ADA Coordinator at:
Email: ADA@bouldercounty.gov
Phone: 303-441-1386

Q3 Progress: 2026

The following is a detailed report of the progress made July-September 2026:

• Began remediation of top 100 PDFs most viewed on our website.
• Rewrote top 100 webpages in plain language.
• Created new document remediation trainings for employees.
• Obtained a pool of document remediation vendors to ensure better turnaround times.
• Continued accessibility testing on partner websites.
• Began making accessible fixes to partner websites.
• Continued rewriting website content to plain language standards
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• Continued sending complex documents to outside vendors for remediation.
• Continued to meet with Siteimprove to review webpages needing accessibility work.
• Staff continue to attend training courses to expand their digital accessibility knowledge.

Q2 Progress: 2026

The following is a detailed report of the progress made April-June 2026:

• Rewrote guidance on accessible videos and audio.
• Completed a Submission of Qualifications to obtain a pool of document remediation vendors.
• Conducted additional accessibility tests on partner sites.
• Finalized new website design to ensure accessibility on the public website.
• Completed employee trainings on making the internal website accessible
• Continued rewriting website content to plain language standards
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• Continued sending complex documents to an outside vendor for remediation.
• Continued to meet with Siteimprove to review webpages needing accessibility work.

Q1 Progress: 2026

The following is a detailed report of the progress made January-March 2026:

• Conducted employee trainings on making the internal website accessible.
• Finalized Spanish language attributes on all Spanish-language pages.
• Began rewriting content to plain language standards.
• Completed accessibility work on partner websites.
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• Continued sending complex documents to an outside vendor for remediation.
• Continued to meet with Siteimprove to review webpages needing accessibility work.
• Our Web Accessibility Administrator met monthly with the Colorado Digital Accessibility Networking Group.
• The Digital Accessibility Team continued to meet weekly to address any digital accessibility issues.
• Continued working with vendor on a website redesign project that will help ensure accessibility on the public website

Q4 Progress: 2025

The following is a detailed report of the progress made October-December 2025:

• Began work on making partner websites accessible.
• Made additional accessibility improvements to the new calendar element.
• Evaluated all posted videos for accessibility.
• Trained employees who conduct virtual meetings on how to make them accessible.
• Built custom tool for Spanish language attributes so screen readers read Spanish content correctly.
• Finalized accessibility tools/training for the internal website.
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• The Digital Accessibility Team continues to meet to identify digital assets needing accessibility improvements.
• Continued sending complex documents to an outside vendor for remediation.
• Continued to meet with Siteimprove to review webpages needing accessibility work.
• Our Web Accessibility Administrator met monthly with the Colorado Digital Accessibility Networking Group and attended a webinar about the Accessing Higher Ground conference on accessibility.
• Continued working with vendor on a website redesign project that will help ensure accessibility on the public website.

Q3 Progress: 2025

The following is a detailed report of the progress made July-September 2025:

• Migrated 300 more inaccessible forms to our new accessible form-builder.
• Worked on remediating our top 100 most-used PDFs.
• Migrated to a new accessible Calendar element.
• Settled on one table design element and conducted customizations to it to make it accessible.
• Our Web Accessibility Administrator met monthly with the Colorado Digital Accessibility Networking Group and attended a webinar about the use of AI in digital accessibility.
• Members of the Digital Accessibility Team attended the SIPA Conference with sessions covering accessibility, and webinars regarding the accessibility laws.
• Made accessibility improvements to several design elements on our website.
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• The Digital Accessibility Team continues to meet to identify digital assets needing accessibility improvements.
• Continued sending complex documents to an outside vendor for remediation.
• Continued to meet with Siteimprove bi-weekly to review webpages needing accessibility work.

Q2 Progress: 2025

The following is a detailed report of the progress made April-June 2025:

• Achieved an accessibility score of 88.1% for the external website. According to Siteimprove, the vendor we use to identify accessible issues on our website, the benchmark for accessibility of government websites is 85.3%.
• Migrated more than 500 inaccessible forms to our new accessible form-building vendor.
• Made accessibility improvements to several design elements on our website.
• Took inventory of kiosks to receive VPATs from vendors.
• Completed accessibility audit of our internal website’s design elements.
• Issued an RFP to hire a vendor to redesign our website. The selected vendor should recommend improvements to navigation, design, and overall consistency, while preserving and building upon the accessibility work already completed.
• Updated our branding and website guidelines to include accessibility requirements.
• Continued to remediate public-facing documents and webpages.
• The Digital Accessibility Team continued to meet weekly to identify digital assets needing accessibility improvements.
• Continued sending complex documents to an outside vendor for remediation.

Q1 Progress: 2025

Boulder County continues to remediate public-facing documents and website pages, as well as making many accessible custom changes to our web design elements. The county’s Digital Accessibility Team continues to meet weekly to review and improve all digital accessibility initiatives throughout the county. Many platforms have been improved including a new accessible form vendor and accessible news release and newsletter templates. We also continue to use the Siteimprove platform to identify accessible issues on our website and correct them. In addition, we continue to use an outside vendor to remediate complex documents as needed.

The following is a detailed report of the progress made:

January 2025

• Implemented a remediation plan for our intranet site to enhance our internal website’s accessibility.
• Conducted employee training on making email newsletters and news releases accessible.

February 2025

• Implemented an approval process for any new website changes.
• Moved email newsletters and news releases to accessible templates.
• Began migrating forms into an accessible format.
• Joined the Statewide Peer Networking Group regarding accessibility.

March 2025

• Began testing for internal website accessibility issues.
• Began testing a new public website events calendar that is more accessible

Q4 Progress: 2024

Boulder County continues to remediate public-facing documents and websites, develop comprehensive training programs for employees to maintain high accessibility standards across the county, and request third-party vendor VPATs. We created a dashboard for internal tracking of metric reporting, hired professional accessibility contractors to assist in the remediation and awareness of HB21-1110, and recently hired a full-time Web Accessibility Administrator. The county has a Digital Accessibility Team to promote and guide accessibility initiatives throughout the county. Boulder County is in the process of improving digital accessibility across various platforms and has made substantial progress in ensuring all digital assets and communications are accessible to everyone.

The following is a detailed report of the progress made:

October 2024

• Found an accessible replacement to Canva for design needs.

• Created a checklist for social media administrators to help ensure accessibility standards are met.

• Developed a training program on Adobe Tag Tree to ensure document tags are correctly ordered.

• Created manual verification checklists for various document types, including PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.

• Identified an accessible form solution to ensure all forms used by the county are accessible.

• Worked with GovDelivery to develop accessible newsletter templates.

November 2024

• Completed accessible templates for PowerPoint presentations and county letterheads.

• Began a review of our internal website accessibility features.

• Conducted training for Social Media Administrators on creating accessible posts.

December 2024

• Established a comprehensive approval process for new website edits and PDFs.

Plans for January 2025

• Implement remediation plan for our intranet site to enhance our internal website’s accessibility.

• Begin remediation of forms to ensure accessibility.

Q3 Progress: 2024

Boulder County is currently engaged in inventorying digital assets, requesting 3rd party vendor VPATS, remediating public facing documents and websites, and providing training to all employees regarding authoring accessible documents. Boulder County has created a digital accessibility training program, dashboard for internal tracking of metric reporting, and hired accessibility professionals to assist in the remediation and awareness of HB21-1110. The County has formulated an ADA Advisory Committee to promote and guide accessibility initiatives throughout the county. Boulder County is in the process of hiring a dedicated full-time Web Accessibility Administrator. This position will provide general oversight, technical leadership, expert guidance, coordination, and support for Boulder County’s websites and digital accessibility compliance. Responsibilities of this position include:

• Coordinating with the State of Colorado Office of Information Technology (OIT) to meet technology accessibility requirements, including compliance with Colorado HB21-1110.
• Maintaining compliance with Boulder County’s Digital Accessibility Plan.
• Participating in the design, evaluation, and validation of digital products used within the County’s digital information platforms.

July 2024

• Created a list of all external PDFs and what needs to be remediated or removed
• Created an internal policy/procedure for digital accessibility

August 2024

• Developed disclaimers for complex and third-party documents to inform users about the accessibility status.
• Created a comprehensive PDF remediation plan, outlining strategies for each document.
• Collected Vendor Accessibility Product Templates (VPATs) from all vendors to confirm adherence to accessibility standards.
• Completed an inventory of all county forms and the programs used to produce them.
• Completed an inventory of all county newsletters and the programs used to produce them.

September 2024

• Created an ADA statement for agendas and minutes in eSCRIBE to ensure accessibility.