Hilliard City Schools (HCS) is committed to ensuring that its website is accessible to students, parents, and members of the community, including individuals with disabilities, except where doing so would impose an undue burden or create a fundamental alteration.
Definitions
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. A person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability. Although this might not result in identical ease of use compared to that of persons without disabilities, it still must ensure equal opportunity to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology.
Legacy Pages: Web pages published prior to August 31, 2014.
Scope
The Web Accessibility Plan applies Hilliard City Schools new and updated web content on hilliardschools.org.
Standards
The HCS website will meet W3C WAI’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0,Level AA conformance. Any issues should be reported to webmaster@hboe.org.
Implementation Process
2016 – 2017
Add tab navigation and skip navigation to district website
Maintain Alt Tags for images
January 2018
Create plan, implementation and audit process
Train Teach Teacher, Media Specialists, Math Coaches, Literacy Coaches
May 2018
Hilliard U training for website content creators
June 2018
Conduct initial audit of site and identify any instances of noncompliance
Audits
An accessibility audit to be completed annually under the direction of the Web Accessibility Coordinator, during which information provided by the District through its electronic and information technologies is measured against the technical standard(s) adopted in the Web Accessibility Plan. All problems identified through the Audit will be documented, evaluated, and, if necessary, remediated within a reasonable period of time.
- http://wave.webaim.org/.
- Manual Checking
A list of files that do not meet accessibility standards will be shared with the HCS content owner/editor of each page with specific step-by-step directions required to fix the problem(s). The HCS content owner /editor will have the option to either fix the issue within 21 days or remove the page or element that does not meet accessibility standards. Follow-up will be provided by the Web Accessibility Coordinator to make sure the problem is resolved.
Training
Annual training for any staff (e.g. administrators, faculty, support staff, student employees) responsible for creating or distributing information with online content to students, employees, guests, and visitors with disabilities, including but not limited to, training on the Web Accessibility Policy and Plan, and their role and responsibilities to ensure that web design, documents, and multimedia content are accessible. The training will be facilitated, in whole or in part, by an individual with sufficient knowledge, skill, and experience to understand and employ the technical standard(s) adopted by the District.
Website Accessibility Concerns, Complaints and Grievances
If you are unable to access any page(s) in our site, please e-mail our Web Developer/Designer with detailed information on the location of the page or document you were attempting to access. Be sure to include your name, email address and phone number so that we may contact you to provide the information in another format.
Please note that some pages on the HCS website contain links to third party sites, which are not within our control and may not comply with accessibility standards. The district is not responsible for the content or accessibility of third party sites.
A student, parent or member of the public who wishes to submit a complaint or grievance regarding a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 or Title II related to the accessibility of any official District/School web presence that is developed by, maintained by, or offered through the HCS, third party vendors and/or open sources may complain directly to a school administrator, or the school or District web developer/designer. The initial complaint or grievance should be made using the website accessibility complaint/request form. When a school administrator or school/District web developer/deisgner receives the information, they shall immediately inform the website accessibility coordinator.
- The complaint or grievance will be investigated by the website accessibility coordinator or another person designated by the Superintendent/School Director. The investigator shall contact the Complainant upon conclusion of the investigation to discuss the findings and conclusions and actions to be taken as a result of the investigation.
- A record of each complaint and/or grievance and the investigation outcome shall be maintained.
