Web Accessibility
The District is committed to creating accessible digital experiences and making its electronic and information technologies accessible for all of the District’s Users, across many different devices. The District’s website is designed to ensure that individuals with disabilities, including those who are blind or partially sighted, can effectively access, understand, navigate, and interact. The website was coded to comply with both the American with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.) and the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended. Along with state and federal law compliance, efforts have been made to ensure compatibility with common technologies used by the adaptive community such as screen magnification software, screen-reading software, and text-only browsers.
The term “District’s website” does not include websites, applications, or content not owned and controlled by the District. “Accessible” means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. "Individuals with disabilities" means individuals with impairments that limit their ability to use information technology. This includes, but is not limited to, individuals with low vision, blindness, hardness of hearing, deafness, limited use of their hands, no use of their hands, or other similar impairments. Individuals with disabilities must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability. Although this might not result in identical ease of use compared to that of persons without disabilities, it still must ensure equal opportunity to the benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology.
The District’s website was developed to comply with the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA) 2.0 Standards. Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA) 2.0 Standards are based on the revised Federal Section 508 Standards, which are in turn based on the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. WCAG is an industry standard for creating accessible content and it provides guidance around best practices for ensuring content is legible for all users, including color contrast ratios, not relying on color solely as a means of conveying information, ensuring that content can be understood with assistive devices and more. Information technologies that are legitimately compliant with the revised Section 508 Standards and/or WCAG 2.0 are also compliant with IITAA 2.0. IITAA 2.0 Standards apply to information technology developed, procured, or substantially modified by State of Illinois entities after January 18, 2018. The District’s website is built in compliance with the general standards determined in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and in accordance with WCAG 2.00 AA.
Along with state and Federal law compliance, efforts have been made to ensure compatibility with common technologies utilized by the adaptive community such as screen magnification software, screen-reading software, and text-only browsers.
The District uses Weglot, an online translation provider to automatically detect, translate, and display the website content so visitors who speak a language other than English can access information. The District's Uniform Grievance Procedure (Board Policy 2:260) contains information about how to file a formal grievance relating to Section 504 and/or Title II.
Please email questions or concerns regarding the District’s Website Accessibility to the District’s Webmaster at webmaster@vvsd.org.