Accessibility Information is sponsored by State of Washington. Washington state grant opportunity: Accessibility Information.

Accessibility Information | Office of Equity Accessibility Information Learn how the Office of Equity is committed to accessibility. Welcome! We usually update this page at least once a month, if not multiple times each week or day.

Last updated: 5-20-26. Need help or have a suggestion? Email us at access@equity.

wa. gov . Alternatively, leave us a message at (360)902-3355.

For TTY relay, first dial 711. Do you need Office of Equity materials in a different format? Here are some FREE options you can request: A Large Print version of a document Braille-compatible version Translated to a language other than English Please submit your request to access@equity.

wa. gov . Please note that materials may came in a different format when translated (e.g., Word Doc or PDF instead of JPG), on a case-by-case basis.

This is to make sure that the translations show up correctly across different phones, computers, and softwares, and work with assistive technology, regardless of the language being used. Our translated documents are reviewed by native speakers of languages, and we want to make sure they have no issue in opening, editing, and translating our content.

Note: By default, we aim to make sure our materials are digitally accessible, meaning they are compatible with assistive technology including Braille, and in plain language. Occasionally there may be a more complicated document such as an Executive Order or something else with limitations. We accept requests so we are aware of what our audience currently needs, and we will make every effort to meet them.

We at the Office of Equity are working to ensure our content, events, and website are accessible to people with disabilities. Learn how we prioritize accessibility, accessibility tips, and let us know what changes could make our website more accessible.

We strive to do so with transparency and share the info below about the steps we have taken with the hopes that others can do the same, and can offer us advice about developing even more accessible protocols. What are the Accessibility policies?

We aim to meet or exceed the requirements of: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Washington State’s USER-01 Policy New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments | ADA. gov USER-01 established that Washington state agencies will follow guidelines for accessibility.

These guidelines are called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and called WCAG (pronounced “wick-Ahg”) for short. Specifically, Washington state agencies are currently required to meet WCAG 2. 1 AA.

The “2. 1” refers to the version of WCAG and “AA” refers to the level of criteria. We will incorporate components from new versions, such as WCAG 2.

2, as they are developed and consider our capacity as well as the voices of people with disabilities. What to expect from our content? Images on our website have an “alternative text” that describes the image.

This can support people with low vision, people who are Blind, who use an assistive technology called a “screen reader. ” These descriptions can help people who have slow internet who want to view the text description and don’t wish to load the image. Images with empty alt text are considered decorative and do not add meaning.

All of our videos since May 2023 have captions that are manually checked by a human being. We are adapting our strategy as some videos have legally-mandated timelines for upload, and we host emerging video content that does not make it possible to publish in a timely manner with manual captions.

At times, vendors or softwares have limitations about formats they can provide and softwares do not yet have the capabilities we want for our audience. We are strategizing on how we can meet the accessibility needs of videos and handle high volumes amidst technical limitations and your feedback is welcomed to help us prioritize! We have Smartsheet forms and PDF forms.

We provide Smartsheet forms (online forms you can fill out in your browser) for convenience and for people who do not edit PDFs. We test our forms for compatibility with assistive technology. If you encounter a barrier or have a suggestion, email us.

We are continuing to advocate with Smartsheet and other technology vendors to make their forms more accessible. We make headings on pages so that people can skim what a page talks about, and this helps people using screen readers and/or Braille quickly get a sense for what’s on a page. Our links describe where the link is going so that people using a screen reader know where the link will take them.

If the document is likely to be seen in a printed format, we will consider keeping the entire link. If you notice a link that is not descriptive enough, please alert us at access@equity. wa.

gov. Past Documents and Technology Since our inception as an office, we have prioritized accessibility in our website, media such as videos, and documents (PDFs). However, if you notice a past document that may not yet meet newer accessibility standards, please let us know if you may need a different format, so we can prioritize this. We want to consider what is most needed.

At times, we inherit documents or videos from external agencies and are required to post them "as-is" in a legally-required timeframe. Balancing Priorities and Limitations ***We are sometimes unfortunately limited in what accessibility features we can offer due to the software we have access to.

In state government, we are limited by state Information Technology policies, procurement processes, or limitations of the software itself, which is controlled by vendors. We are documenting what features we need, advocating with the vendor, but cannot guarantee changes. If you are impacted by accessibility, please let us know.

When we speak with vendors or product managers, they often don't know how many people are affected, and we want your voice to be heard. Regardless, we seek creative ways to meet our audience's needs. We seek to determine what additional capacity or resources we may need to meet the multi-dimensional needs to do groundbreaking work.

We also want to support our staff with educational resources and time to learn about digital accessibility so we can proceed thoughtfully, as we are aware that digital accessibility info is not commonly included in curriculum. It is a quickly evolving field and many state employees and members of the public may be new to the topic or have not had resources or time to understand the topic previously.

Yes, please see our Accessibility FAQ which is also available (in the footer) at the end of each page. Please note that our website contains links to external sites. We encourage our partners with accessibility resources and suggestions, but we do not control the content or accessibility of external sites created by third parties.

I want to learn more about Digital Accessibility! Check out our resource page on Digital Accessibility | Office of Equity ! We thank the work of so many who have contributed to digital accessibility and modeled the way.

We are thankful to our readers including you for your continued feedback. We would like to especially thank the participants in our user studies that represent a variety of demographics, a range of disabilities and assistive technology usage. These were instrumental in redesigning our website and resulted in significant changes to our website menu, our external links, our alt text, and page content.