spiritofcitywebs.com

***** Drafting this still *****

Mind mapping it

Elements (of #2 of sites)

9 sites total
length of paragraphs
1 P on 2 site
3 P on 1 site
6 P on 2 site
8 P on 1 site

committed to making web content (on 7 site)
W3C (on 3 site)
WAI (on 3 site)
The Center for Applied Special Technology (on 1 site)
recognizes the needs of disabled persons to use (on 1 site)
alt tags (on 1 site)
committed to making its Web sites(on 1 site)
site is easy to understand(on 1 site)
contact (on 2 site)
508 (on 6 site)
may not strictly comply with standards. (on 1 site)
Additional Applications (on 1 site)
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, section 504.

Links to
United States Access Board http://www.access-board.gov (on 1 site)
Section508.gov http://www.section508.gov (on 1 site)
Browsaloud website. http://www.browsealoud.com (on 1 site)
Worldwide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org/wai/ (on 2 site)
adobe http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/index.html

Facts

According to the latest statistics available from the Bureau of the Census, there are 9.7 million people in the United States who have difficulty seeing the words and letters in ordinary newsprint, equal to 5.0% of the total population. Another 10.9 million people, or nearly 6% of the total population, have difficulty hearing what is said in an ordinary conversation with another person.

Policy statement

The City of "X" believes that part of it main services to their citizens is to provide quality and well defined information to all of it citizens that would request, or benefit from that information. Part of that believe is to ensure that citizens who are disabled or have special needs are able to consume most of the information that we provide on the web. To that concern the "website name" has some made several goals in the design of the pages that we provide.

Our goal is to have graded browser support and be Browser Class "A" complainant, to write content that is semantically correct and follows the best practices that is set by W3C. We also desire to have the content that we provide to be within the structure that the "Rehabilitation Act" Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘ 794d) set forth to ensure accessibility it can also be reviewed at W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Defining Trems

Graded Browser Support -- In the first 10 years of professional web development, back in the early ‘90s, browser support was binary: Do you — or don’t you — support a given browser? When the answer was “No”, user access to the site was often actively prevented. By contrast, in modern web development we must support all browsers. Choosing to exclude a segment of users is inappropriate, and, with a “Graded Browser Support” strategy, unnecessary. Graded Browser Support offers two fundamental ideas: A broader and more reasonable definition of “support.” The notion of “grades” of support.

Semantic Web -- The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which integrates a variety of applications using XML for syntax and URIs for naming.

Accessibility -- the ability to view web pages on different browsers and multiple platforms; especially concerns individuals with disabilities — that they have access to and be able to use information and data in a manner comparable to individuals without disabilities

references

http://www.section508.gov
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/articles/gbs/index.html
http://www.mcgill.ca/help/webpublishing/glossary/
http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

notes

the State of Virginia has also developed accessibility standards for state agency Web sites. The Technology Access Clause of the Code of Virginia, developed by the State Secretary of Technology, dictates the requirements pertaining to non-visual access to technology.

Contact

Site users who encounter difficulty using this site are requested to contact the City Web Development Team describing the nature of the problem and the section where the difficulty was encountered.

Contact Information:

Sample Accessibility Policies

Sample 1 is from Aurora, Colorado I took it of Nov 6, 2008

Accessibility
The City of Aurora is committed to providing information to all of its citizens and visitors. The AuroraGov.org web site is working toward w3c.org/WCI Level A compliance. Our project plan is for the compliance to be attained. We are currently working on an alternative navigation bar that does not rely on javascript. Our goal is to build a menu system that will produce a dynamically generated Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) controlled menu system that would be at least Level A compliant. Once that project is completed, our development plan is to rebuild the page layouts to use Cascading Style Sheets for the page’s main structure and tables will be used in the content/article section of the page. The table used in the content will be WCI Level A compliant. The Web Content Management System(WCMS) used for the AuroraGov.org’s site converts Microsoft Word Documents into HTML content using a dynamic conversion template. To make the AuroraGov.org site Level AA compliant, the dynamic conversion template will need to be re-engineered and will take some development time. Our future goal is to analyze each piece of content that is being provided on the site and to assure Level AA compliance.

If you are using any browsers with assistant software, please make comments on our site using the contact us link. Your comments will help us make the site more accessible to all of our site visitors.
If you encounter pages that do not provide enough accessibility, please contact Access Aurora

Sample 2

The City of Virginia Beach has made every effort make VBgov.com adhere to the following guidelines and recommendations.

1. Section 508 Standard of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, Federal employees with disabilities have access and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency.
2. To assist in the development of accessible Web pages, the World Wide Web Consortium, through its Web Accessibility Initiative, has developed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - specifications "providing guidance on accessibility of Web sites for people with disabilities."
3. Additionally, the State of Virginia has also developed accessibility standards for state agency Web sites. The Technology Access Clause of the Code of Virginia, developed by the State Secretary of Technology, dictates the requirements pertaining to non-visual access to technology.

Site Design & Accessibility
The City of Virginia Beach Communications and Information Technology Department has developed consistent and strategic guidelines for the construction of online pages and services that appear as part of VBgov.com. These guidelines help ensure a positive user experience and easier accessibility by maintaining a consistent page layout, information architecture and navigation schema. In addition, the guidelines assist contributors to the site in developing a site that reflects the suggestions set forth in the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative.

Guidelines for VBgov include:

1. All images on the site contain alternate text descriptions for the benefit of user's utilizing assistive technologies.
2. All pages are designed and tested for compatibility with all major web browsers and operating systems.
3. All navigational image maps will contain alternate, text-based hyperlinks in a clearly defined area.
4. All pages (unless specifically unavoidable due to application restraints) will be designed with a percentage width versus a fixed width to ensure maximum visibility regardless of user screen resolution or monitor size. All critical content components will be visible within the 800 x 600 resolution setting.
5. All pages and documents posted to the site will contain appropriate meta-data to ensure useful search functions.
6. Links to new information and services will be posted and dated on the main page of VBgov. These links will begin with descriptive, call-to-action verbs such as "Review", "Learn" and "Visit" rather than vague link references such as "click here" or "link."
7. Frames will not be used on VBgov as they are not interpretable by assistive technologies such as screen readers and they often cause severe navigational breakdowns.
8. VBgov will contain no background images, to ensure consistency and provide optimum visibility.

Tools for Blind & Visually Impaired Users
Adobe, the makers of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, have developed tools to assist blind and visually-impaired users. Please visit the Adobe Accessibility area for more information. Please note that the tools designed to create simple HTML documents easily read by standard speech-synthesis software will not retain the graphic images or text formatting of an original Adobe PDF.

Helper Applications
Some of the services and information posted on VBgov require that a user download and install additional applications as part of their browser software. The basic versions of these applications are offered, at no cost, on the vendor's Web site. (Recent versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator may have these applications installed. These applications include:

* Windows Media Player - The City uses Windows Media Player to broadcast live and archived sessions of City Council. This application will allow you to view the sessions through your web browser. Alternatively, all minutes, motions and resolutions of City Council meetings are posted online in text format.
* Adobe Acrobat Reader - The City uses Adobe Acrobat to create Portable Document Format (PDF) files to provide online access to City documents in their original formatting. There are several converter applications available online that will convert PDF documents into a variety of alternate document formats, including simple HTML.

More About Accessibility
For further information and to learn more about the regulations governing the accessibility of Federal electronic information products, visit the Section 508 pages listed below:

* Section 508 home page - http://www.section508.gov/
* Access Board - http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
* Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Contact
Site users who encounter difficulty using this site are requested to contact the City Web Development Team describing the nature of the problem and the section where the difficulty was encountered.
Contact Information:
Web Team
1800 College Crescent, Room H161
Virginia Beach, VA 23453
webforms@vbgov.com

Bad Example

Not addressing accessibility or why they are doing it just that they are doing it with a third party service.
http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/disclaimer.htm

Status of the Bobby test

Reference Sites
Nov 13 2008 Aurora, Colorado
Nov 13 2008 City of Virginia Beach
Nov 13 2008 Tucson, Az
Nov 13 2008 Chesapeake, Va
Nov 13 2008 Washington, DC
Nov 13 2008 Hollywood, Floridia
Nov 13 2008 Honolulu, Hawaii broke the sites look and feel why did they do that?
Nov 13 2008 Fort Collins, Colorado this is a really short verision
Nov 13 2008 Madison, Wisconsin another really short statement.
Nov 13 2008 Mesa, Az It was hard to find
Nov 13 2008 Nashville, Tennessee