MMA hosts webinar on digital accessibility challenges

An MMA webinar on Aug. 4 reviewed some of the top challenges municipalities are facing in regards to digital accessibility.

The webinar featured accessibility specialists from the Commonwealth’s Accessibility Center for Consulting, Education and Support Services (ACCESS) team.

Accessibility Training Coordinator Adam Gojanovich reviewed considerations and strategies for:
• Developing accessible meeting minutes and redline documents
• Deciding if a document should be in a PDF format
• Archiving documents
• Plug-ins for websites

He warned that so-called accessibility overlays “are things that we want to be very, very cautious about.”

“We, at the state, have a specific policy against them,” he said. “These things that claim to automatically fix a website, add additional tools to the page, provide a false sense of security. They can cause additional issues. They do not prevent lawsuits, and in some cases, can cause lawsuits.”

Gojanovich discussed a website that will launch soon — accessibility.mass.gov — to provide checklists, training, and a document decision tree to help municipalities with accessibility requirements. Municipalities may also sign up for the ACCESS team’s office hours for specific questions.

Susan Noyes, director of the Office of Municipal and School Technology, and Mindy Johnson, documents and communications accessibility coordinator at ACCESS, moderated 20 minutes of questions and answers, addressing inquiries regarding which department an accessibility coordinator should work in, recommendations for presenting large budget tables, and posting slide decks from public meetings.