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
Hawaii
We conducted our preliminary analysis on the state of Hawaii's public-facing website.
ADA Accommodation Statement - Score: 5
We searched for "ADA Accommodation" on the home site and found a link to the Disability and Communication Access Board (DCAB) within the Hawaii Department of Health's site near the bottom of the first page of results. One can find a link to the accommodation statement within the blue categories tab at the top of the page, marked "ADA Coordination."
The ADA Coordination page includes information about the ADA and relevant State legislation, State and county coordinators, and links to federal ADA agencies. At the bottom of the page are links to State of Hawaii ADA Resources. These links include the governor's directive, ADA fact sheets, policy guidance, and much more. In a grey tab running down the right side of the page, a "Contact Us" link can be found below the section contents, leading to a page with various contact methods.
We initially scored this section as a 4 due to the fact that ADA Coordinators are listed on an attached document instead of the actual page (linked documents are often not as accessible as the HTML pages themselves). However, we reviewed the linked document and while we found some accessibility errors (table rows with no heading information served as headers for example), the content contained within was readable with assistive technology. For this reason, we scored this section a 5.
ADA Grievance Procedure - Score: 3
The DCAB is a terrific and unique accessibility asset. It is dedicated to handling various statewide disability affairs that "does not have enforcement authority but works with all parties to assist with Title II requirements." It reflects a commitment and holistic approach to accessibility issues.
However, we found a bit of a breakdown in DCAB's united accessibility efforts when looking for the ADA grievance process. On the State and County Coordinators page, DCAB describes a complaint process that directs all grievance traffic through ADA coordinators, often via the DCAB.
The page states:
"A department or agency ADA Coordinator is responsible for coordinating efforts of a respective government entity (state or county) to comply with Title II of the ADA. The coordinator will investigate any complaints received that the entity may be in violation of the ADA. Note that ADA Coordinators are typically not assigned full time to ADA issues, but often handle grievances based on other protected classes or have other administrative duties."
Of the DCAB's role in the grievance process, the page states:
"When DCAB receives a complaint, DCAB will refer the complaint to the appropriate departmental or agency ADA Coordinator for action. If the department or agency requests technical assistance to resolve the issue, DCAB can be consulted to provide technical assistance."
DCAB serves a dual role. It fields complaint requests and provides technical assistance. We like DCAB's flexibility and statewide presence, but their description of the actual grievance process is underwhelming. Here we look for total transparency, not an explanation of inter-agency interactions.
We scored this section a three, as the information exists with a process found in county-level documents, e.g., Kaua'i. The process, however, is somewhat opaque as described by DCAB, and the lack of a full-time ADA coordinator is confusing. In addition, as our scoring methodology dictates, a score of 4 or higher requires a dedicated individual and access to a form or email that can easily be completed by individuals visiting the page.
Accessibility Statement - Score: 2
Through a link at the bottom of the homepage in tiny font, Hawaii's Accessibility Statement shows a commitment to WCAB 2.0 level A, with a stated commitment to reaching Double-A compatibility. The page also claims commitment to improving access stating, "Improving access to citizens with disabilities is one of our top priorities, and any suggestions or comments are welcome." However, the page offers no links, names, means of contact, or ways to offer suggestions or comments.
The score was between two and three, though we chose the former. We liked the mention of adherence to accessibility standards but were perplexed by the complete lack of contact information or connection to other resources, most notably, DCAB. Adding a method to contact someone about accessibility concerns from the page would boost the score to a 3 using the matrix we've included below − an update we are happy to make with that small change.
Automated Errors - Score: 5
The site had no automated errors. Given that we settled on a score of 5 for sites that had less than five errors on any given page, the score for this site is a 5 (see scoring matrix below).
Overall
Overall, the State of Hawaii's publicly facing site scored 15 out of 20 available points, giving them an accessibility awareness score (AQ) of 75%. We believe transparency of the State's ADA efforts could be improved by listing contacts in the accessibility statement and providing a central explanation of the ADA grievance process that includes an easily accessible process or form.
Again, we have not completed a deep dive into the overall accessibility of the site. Our only objective was to identify the State'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, California, Oregon, and Washington.
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