Accessible Communication

Technical accessibility/ Section 508

What is “accessible” communication?

• Designed to reach persons with - and without - disabilities

• Designed to limit need for accommodations

• Allows receiver to gain important information, and to give feedback as easily with or without disabilities

• You can never be 100%

Why accessible? 

• It’s the law – 508, 504, ADA, 255– State and local laws, grant requirements

demand it as well

• It’s essential for public health– Especially for early detection efforts

• Deaf parents• Increasing mean age of parents (HoH)• Increasing grandparent custody (HoH)• Providing accessibility can be part of your

awareness campaign

Nuts and Bolts – Meeting Accessibility

– General meetings open to the public must be captioned• Relay Conference Captioning• CART• Sign language interpreters

– Handouts• English as a second language• Print accessibility – large print vs. disk

 Nuts and Bolts – Customer Communications

– Train staff for relay calls• Delays in response• Unclear or imprecise language

– Voicemail and VRS systems must be able to respond to TTY input.

– Kiosks and ITMs• must have jacks for ALS/CI.• Volume must be adjustable at least to

ambient +20db

 Nuts and bolts - multimedia

– All multimedia must be captioned• Includes FLASH and online movies and

animations, as well as TV spots– MAGPIE

• Closed or Open captioning• Audio files/Radio spots should have

transcripts available – sat/DR should have text for website

Nuts and Bolts – Websites

• Consider multiple disabilities– Color blindness– Visual disabilities– Motor impairments– Cognitive disabilities– Medical conditions (seizures)– Blind and Deaf/Blind

• PDFs, Word files need to be accessible too!

Resources:

• Why Accessible?– www.ada.gov

• Meeting accessibility– Fairfax County, VA Checklist

• Customer Communications– Relay - Minnesota Department of Commerce– Kiosks – US Access Board

• Multimedia– National Center for Accessible Media

• Websites– HHS Section 508 for the Web

QUESTIONS?

Questions?