Accessibility

When creating human-centered digital products, we must consider three important aspects of design: usability, inclusivity, and accessibility.

Usability asks: Can people achieve their goals simply, consistently, efficiently, and in a satisfying way using this product, system, or website?

Inclusivity asks: Are people from various backgrounds and cultures, ages, abilities and disabilities, genders, geographical locations, languages, computer literacy, etc. being considered in the design of this product, system, or website?

Accessibility is a subset of inclusivity and asks: Are people with disabilities able to access, understand, interact with, and benefit fully from this product, system, or website?

These ideas overlap. Making a website more accessible often makes it more usable. Thinking inclusively leads to creating accessible solutions. However, considering each individually increases our chance of addressing each need more thoroughly in the products and services we create.

• Buttons, links, and other interface controls operated with a keyboard
• Keyboard focus indicators
• Descriptive labels on form controls
• Alternative (alt) text on images
• Clear, well-structured navigation links
• Page content with appropriate heading hierarchy
• Captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions on videos
• Readable color contrast and font size
• Motion and animation controls
• Machine-readable PDFs with proper tagging and metadata

The Office of Information Technology Standards defines the standards that state entities must follow for applications, websites and other digital interfaces that are developed procured or maintained by State Entities. The standards include the requirements from Section 103-d of the New York State Technology Law and the Department of Justice rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Here is a summary of the standards:

• Under New York State law, any new state websites, or existing that undergo changes to form or function, are required to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards by January 1, 2027.

• The Department of Justice rule requires all website content and mobile applications conform to WCAG 2.1 AA criteria by June 25, 2026.

• The only exceptions for this are:

  • Archived web content,

  • Preexisting conventional electronic documents unless those documents are for applying or participating in public services, programs or activities

  • Content posted by a third party

  • Preexisting social media posts

  • Individualized or password protected electronic documents

• You will be required to conduct manual and automated testing and maintain documentation of these efforts.

• Beginning January 1, 2027, any non-compliant agencies will be required to post a report on their website outlining the steps taken to comply, what prevented compliance, what’s being done to come into compliance and estimated timeframes.

Read the Policy

Understanding the Standards

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.
• ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, defines a way to make web content and web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies.

General Resources

• NYS Plain Language Guide - Quick-start guide for using plain language
• 18F’s Accessibility Guide - Common accessibility issues with testing steps and examples from the federal government
• Accessibility for Teams Guide - Role-specific guidance from the federal government for building accessibility into your teams’ workflow
• WC3 Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos - In-depth videos about the impact and benefits of accessibility
• WC3 Accessibility Fundamentals - Resources for getting a better understanding of accessibility and the different components

Tools for Checking Accessibility Compliance

• Accessibility Insights - Free tool for testing accessibility on sites and Windows applications

• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker - Browser-based tool for checking the contrast of two colors
• Wave Accessibility Checker - Browser-based extension for checking accessibility of a web page
• Google Lighthouse / Accessibility Audit - An open-source tool for improving the overall quality of web pages, including accessibility

• HTML CodeSniffer - Browser-based tool for checking HTML source code against various accessibility coding standards

• Pa11y - Several open-source tools for integrating accessibility testing into more advanced development workflows (including command-line tools)
• NVDA - Free Windows screen-reader tool for testing web accessibility

Sign up to get involved in the New York Experience.

SIGN UP