Accessibility Policy

Introduction

WaTech is committed to making its electronic and information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities by striving to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Washington State Office of the Chief Information Office (OCIO) Policy #188. Our policy was approved by our Technology Services Board on Dec. 16, 2016.

'Accessible' definition

"Accessible" means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability.

WaTech uses best efforts to implement the established and testable standard of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2). Level AA of these guidelines align with OCIO Policy #188, Information and Communication Technologies, and other state and federal law concerning access.

Principals defining access

The following principals are used to define access:

  1. Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
  2. Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable.
  3. Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
  4. Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

Accessibility at WaTech

WaTech has internal policy and processes in place to help ensure accessibility and is constantly working to improve these to better serve all of our customers. This includes, but is not limited to procurement, contracting, content and document publishing, development, training, testing, quality assurance and working with our vendors.

If you wish to report an issue related to the accessibility of any of our WaTech sites or services, please contact communications@watech.wa.gov.