The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) is dedicated to ensuring all Coloradans have fair and equal access to its services. We are actively working to make all of our programs, activities, and information accessible to everyone.
Our agency is following the accessibility technical standards developed by the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) with the intent of providing enterprise standard configurations for technologies which provide service to those with disabilities in accordance with the technical standards provided by:
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA or higher
- Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Chapters 3, 4, 6
- C.R.S. 24-85-101 to 24-85-104, Article 85
To achieve this, the following plan has been put into place to evaluate, improve, and regularly update all of our digital tools and resources. Below outlines some of the steps DOLA is taking to make this happen.
Progress
| Task | Status |
|---|---|
| Create and adopt a DOLA accessibility policy establishing expectations and procedures for developing accessible digital communications and technology. | Complete: DOLA accessibility policy adopted November 2024. |
| Create a DOLA accessibility statement and post it on the main DOLA web site and links to the statement on all other websites. | Complete: Internal and external DOLA web sites and web apps include link to statement (typically in the footer) |
| Provide contact information and support for receiving accessibility feedback and accommodation requests. | Complete: Added contact information to DOLA accessibility statement Complete: Accessibility point of contacts for designated in each DOLA division and office Complete: Created a work management space for incoming accommodation requests to track submissions |
| Conduct and maintain an inventory of technology and ensure the DOLA accessibility statement is linked, specify whether accessibility documentation or accommodation plans are needed, and assign responsible parties in charge of ensuring technology is accessible. | Ongoing: Divisions and offices inventorying digital assets and accessibility team writing and submitting accessibility documentation and/or accommodation plans |
| Ensure external and internal DOLA websites are prioritized, tested, and accessibility issues addressed. | Complete: Major internal and external sites have been tested. Ongoing: Remediation of accessibility issues found during testing |
| In addition to manual testing of external DOLA websites, DOLA is focused on Siteimprove scores. | Ongoing: Lowest score is 98.2 and highest score is 100.0 |
| Ensure DOLA technologies are prioritized, tested for accessibility, and accessibility issues are addressed. | Ongoing: Working weekly with vendors and responsible parties to get accessibility issues fixed through multiple updates. Important to note: This will always be an ongoing process as vendors cannot fix all accessibility issues in one go and new issues will come up as updates to technologies happen. |
| Procurement and vendor management: Integrate accessibility criteria into all of its solicitation, evaluation and contract processes and use these processes to improve the accessibility of our product/service offerings. | Complete: Expectations on accessibility criteria have been set with DOLA staff and vendors beginning April 2024. Ongoing: Ensuring the process to procure is accessible for internal and external users. |
| Create and implement a plan for providing reasonable accommodation and modification until the technology can be made accessible. | Ongoing: Equally effective access plans (EEAAP) are being written. |
| Incorporate accessibility requirements into our technology development stages including design, development, user experience and quality assurance. | Ongoing: Current vendors are incorporating accessibility into their process Complete: Contract and statement of work languages updated to include state accessibility requirements with new vendors |
| Create and post on front-facing web pages a progress-to-date report that is updated quarterly and demonstrates concrete and specific efforts toward compliance with the OIT rules. | Complete: Posted here. |
Formal Approval
Last updated March 2025.