Accessibility
Large District Websites Have 'Extensive Accessibility Issues'
The Bureau of Internet Accessibility (BoIA) recently shared the results of automated tests it ran to check the accessibility of a handful of school websites and found that those tested had "extensive" issues related to accessibility.
In a blog post about the tests, BoIA pointed to the fact that about 13 percent of all public school students receive special education services and nearly 500 investigations have started by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to look into the accessibility of school, district and college websites.
To see how school sites measure up against accessibility standards, the company used its automated website scanning tool to evaluate eight different district websites. The company chose districts with more than 150,000 students and noted that, "Although automation can only detect up to 30 percent of actual accessibility issues, it does provide directional insight into the overall accessibility of a given website," according to the blog post. "Using this method, BoIA concluded that these sites do in fact, have extensive accessibility issues."
The districts tested, with links to their results, include:
Los Angeles Unified School District returned the best results, according to BoIA, but the district's site still failed on 10 out of 25 checkpoints, according to the results. In their favor, they did have an accessibility statement on their homepage and contact information for a dedicated Americans with Disabilities Act compliance manager.
Common problems among the sites scanned were the inability to resize text and issues with keyboard-only site navigation.
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at jbolkan@gmail.com.