California: What's Your State's Accessibility Awareness Quotient (AQ)?

Published February 17, 2022

The Accessibility Awareness Quotient (AQ) looks to measure an organization's awareness of disability and accessibility requirements and expectations based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The study includes a review of an organization's public-facing web content, policies and procedures, transparency of its accommodation process, grievance process, accessibility statement, and easily identifiable accessibility barriers. 

Related: 3 Reasons We Need to Shift From Accessibility Awareness to Action

California

We conducted our preliminary analysis on California's public-facing state website.

ADA Accommodation Statement - Score: 5

We found the ADA accommodation statement through a site search, located on its own page within the department of rehabilitation (DoR). We also found excellent content about the reasonable accommodation process in the Department of Human Resources and Department of Fair Employment and Housing websites.

The main text on the page breaks down the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into its four component titles: Title I) Employment; Title II) State and Local Government Activities; Title III) Public Accommodations (Businesses & nonprofit service providers); and Title IV Telecommunications Relay Services. For each title, CA provides explanations, links, and compliance resources. The site also provides a link to the full text of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Aside from the main text, the site lists several helpful links, including:

  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Disability Laws and Regulations
  • Awareness and Disability Etiquette
  • Boost Your Business
  • Digital Access
  • Employment Today
  • DVDs for State Employees
  • Webinar Replays
  • Talent Acquisition
  • Job Seeker/ Consumer

Most importantly, the page lists an email contact and two phone numbers below the links, one for voice and one for TTY, a unique accessibility service for deaf, hard of hearing, and speech-impaired people to type messages.

Given that California gave ADA accommodation such extensive treatment, we have given it the highest possible score of 5.

ADA Grievance Procedure - Score: 5

Though several California departments reference specific grievance processes, we found the most in-depth discussion of the grievance process housed in the California Courts website (within the .gov domain).

The site presents some information about making requests for accommodations, including how to proceed if the courts deny an individual's request and appeal.

On a separate page discussing ADA grievance procedures, the state breaks the process up into several steps. The gist is that complaints must be in writing and submitted according to a district or the Supreme Court of California to investigate the ADA coordinator and/or their policies and procedures. The site provides the contact information for each district and the Supreme Court of California.

The site proceeds to mention each court and the contact for each district. Given the high level of detail for the grievance process, we gave the state a score of 5.

Accessibility Statement – Score 5

California's accessibility statement is easily found through a link at the bottom of the homepage. It reads:

This State of California's website is designed, developed and maintained to be in compliance with California Government Code Sections 7405 and 11135, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, or a subsequent version, as published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium at a minimum Level AA success criteria.

This State of California's website accepts no responsibility for the content or accessibility of the external websites or external documents linked to on this website.

The statement indicates adherence to WCAG 2.0 AA Guidelines and presents the state version of a web maturity model.

The page also lists a cluster of valuable links, including CA Accessibility Standards, the ADA Notice, the Department of Rehabilitation, and the Commission of Disability Access. There is a link to contact the webmaster with any issues.

Our criteria for giving the highest score to an accessibility statement are as follows: an existing accessibility statement that communicates ongoing efforts transparently and lists resources for visitors to improve accessibility and has designated individuals to coordinate and strive for WCAG 2.0 at a minimum. Even though the statement page only gives a link to the webmaster, we still scored the statement a 5, given that it has multiple departments committed to accessibility issues. Some of these resources can be found in the links at the bottom of the page.

Automated Errors - Score: 5

California appears to have taken accessibility seriously. No automated errors were identified, which again, is a snapshot and is not intended to determine accessibility, just awareness, something we believe is demonstrated through the lack of any automated errors. We awarded it a 5, the highest score.

Overall

California's public-facing site scored perfectly, earning 20/20 points. It was among the best in the nation and is certainly the gold standard in the pacific region in regards to awareness. One way to improve in the future would be to link all accessibility and accommodation data, eliminating the need for a site search, which can be tedious.

Again, we have not completed a deep dive into the overall accessibility of the site. Our only objective was to identify the organization's awareness of its ADA requirements and commitment to accessible services. 

As organizations update their publicly facing content, we will update these posts. 

Methodology

Scoring

 

Other posts in this series: Alaska, Oregon, Hawaii, and Washington.

 

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