NYS Department of Health

1. NYS Department of Health Accessibility Awareness

2. WHAT IS ACCESSIBILITY? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, something is accessible when it can be “easily obtained”

3. WHAT IS ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE WEB? It is ensuring everyone… disabled, disadvantaged, or totally able is able to use the site in the most straightforward manner. Universal Access -available through computer, phone, or TV -available to all people, regardless of their hardware, software, language, culture, location, or physical/mental ability

4. HEARING DISABILITIES + solutions HEARING IMPAIRED DEAF ..users rely on captioning or text transcripts of audio content

5. PHYSICAL DISABILITIES + solutions physical ..unable to move one or more limbs, fingers, or toes motor skill ..unable to press one key at a time, unable to press a key without duplicate keystrokes, unable to use a mouse SOLUTION: people who do not use a mouse rely on shortcuts or point devices

6. SHORTCUTS ..solutions shortcuts ..are keystrokes that enact the same commands available in the menus of a program. They are quicker and more direct, and usually involve two or three keys depressed simultaneously **these are NOT automatic.. must be implemented during the development of a web document

7. POINT DEVICE ..solutions point devices ..is either a mouse, trackball, touchpad, or head pointer that allows you to work as if you were typing on a physical keyboard. -works with on-screen keyboards such as WiViK

8. ON SCREEN KEYBOARD

9. VISUAL DISABILITIES + solutions BLIND IMPAIRED VISION COLOR BLIND ..uses software that reads content out loud or solutions that translate the content into brail ..site must be developed to not rely on color ..uses browser software or magnifying software

10. BASIC WEB PAGE IN HTML <!--#include virtual="/include/xhtml/xhtml_header.htm"--> <p><strong>HCRA</strong> is a major component of New York State's Health Care financing laws which governs hospital reimbursement methodologies and targets funding for a multitude of health care initiatives. The law also requires that certain third-party payors and providers of health care services participate in the funding of these initiatives through the submission of authorized surcharges and assessments.</p> <h2>What's New</h2> <h3>August 15, 2008</h3> Letter to Payors and Third Party Administrators regarding the <a href="/nysdoh/hcra/letters/2008-08-15_2008-2009_supplemental_covered_lives_assessment.htm" title="Letter to Payors and Third Party Administrators regarding Supplemental Covered Lives Report">2008-2009 Supplemental Covered Lives Assessment Report</a>. A complete list of required resources for this reporting obligation are available on our website.

11. HOW SCREEN READERS WORK • * A screen reader is a software program that reads back to a person and how it is presented • * recognizes the <tags> and reads the necessary text within them • *describes the structure of the web page to the listener • *rely on text-equivalents of every piece of non-text information that portrays the same message as someone who can visually see it • <img alt=“This is a powerpoint presentation describing accessibility issues and solutions”>

12. Sighted people can look at a printed page and easily discern the difference between titles, subtitles, columns of text, headers, footers etc… • They also are able to use visual cues such as font sizes and bold text to determine structure Screen readers cannot rely on these visual clues. IF YOU DON’T make your document accessible… You leave people out! RULES are the same no matter what publishing software you are using.

13. Scanned documents are recognized as 1 image • Screen readers will not pick up any images, links or even text • In order for documents like these to be made accessible it must: • Be converted into HTML • Have ALT descriptions for all images • Have a navigation panel • Allow key board short cuts

14. ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS&HOW YOU CAN HELP

15. WHO MANAGES ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS? Accessibility on the web is governed globally by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) NYS Agencies are governed by the Chief Information Officer/Office of Technology (CIO/OFT) - international industry consortium dedicated to “leading the Web to its full potential” - led by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. - more than 450 member organizations

16. GOAL OF W3C: …to develop specifications (de facto standards) to enhance the interoperability of web-related products. These standards help ensure that everyone has access to the information we are providing, and also make web development faster and more enjoyable.

17. NYS ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS In August 2008, the NYS CIO/OFT issued their latest accessibility policy (NYS-S08-005), which provides that all state agency web-based intranet and Internet information and applications are accessible for persons with disabilities. As web developers, we utilize both standards. The New York State standard is a hybrid standard combining both State and Federal guidelines. Because of this unique combination of standards, NYS is more strict than federal or state standards alone.

18. NYS ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS -Separate mandatory policy S04-001, is comprised of 14 individual standards derived from the W3C’s guidelines and the U.S. Section 508 federal law for accessibility. -Web designers test NYS web pages using the NYS Validation Tool which is available online or in desktop version for larger sites -CIO/OFT is the designated agency for developing policies to ensure compliance with the State Technology Law for the state Enterprise and Executive Order No. 117

19. WHY ACCESSIBILITY FOR NYS? • - The average age of web users is going up EVERY YEAR. • BE RECOGNIZED.. If your site is easy to use, your Organization will be respected. • Can you afford to lose or annoy 15% of your audience? • - Standards and guidelines for the Web let disabled and • non-disabled users benefit from the same data sources. • Web accessibility is an issue of equal opportunity and discrimination • It’s the law. • It’s the right thing to do. Period.

20. WHY … In New York State, about one in five of the adult, non-institiutionalized population (about 3 million people) report an activity limitation.

21. HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU Do you know the process for making our bureau’s document HTML accessible and uploading them on the NYS DOH web site? Do you know how YOU can help to ensure they meet all required standards without any prior HTML knowledge?

22. DO & DON’TS • DO • Plan ahead - when and what do you want published • Leave in original format • Talk to web people! • DON’T • - Use old documentation • - Create PDF’s for web use • - Leave your web people in the dark!

23. QUESTIONS?