Web Accessibility - New York State Policy
Accessibility of State Agency Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications
Policy P04-002 and Mandatory Standard S04-001
(Published: June 21, 2004, Revised: October 25, 2006)

New York recognizes the importance of making its digital government services available to the largest possible audience. The purpose of this policy and the accompanying standards is to make New York State agency web-based intranet and internet information and applications accessible to persons with disabilities. This policy replaces and supersedes OFT's earlier policies, 96-13 and 99-3, regarding accessibility. This new policy and accompanying standards had extensive review by OFT's IT Accessibility Steering Committee made up of accessibility experts from nine state agencies, including the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities, and from the Center for Technology in Government. Additional accessibility workgroups, established by this steering committee and the NYS Information Resource Forum, also provided review and feedback, as well as a final review by the State CIO Council before the issuance of this policy and standards.

SUNY New Paltz Web Accessibility Contact:
Rachel Reuben
Director of Web Communication & Strategic Projects
Web Management, Office of Public Affairs
SUNY New Paltz
1 Hawk Drive
New Paltz, NY 12561-2443
Phone: (845) 257-3274
Fax: (845) 257-3345
E-mail: reubenr@newpaltz.edu

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
    - Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

Resources:

• Best Practice Guidelines
• Mandatory Standards checklist: Word format | Acrobat PDF format
• Q&A from the SUNY Accessibility Webinar 10/05/04
• Don't use "click here" as link text
• Toolbars for IE and Mozilla/Firefox offer great features that help with developing accessible, standards compliant Web sites:
  Internet Explorer  ·  Mozilla/Firefox
• Bobby (a tool that analyzes Web pages for accessibility compliance. No longer free - Watchfire acquired the Bobby software.)
  Download a previously free/older version of Bobby to run through your entire site. Please read their icon guidelines if you plan to use one of the Bobby approved icons on your site.
• PDF's: Include this code. See also:
     More on PDFs and #1 in the SUNY Webinar Q&A
• Creating Accessible JavaScript
• Dive Into Accessibility: 30 Days to a More Accessible Web site
• The Web Accessibility How-To Site
• Anybrowser.org Campaign - Accessible Site Design
• Article on CNN.com about Web Accessibility (8/7/00)
• AWARE (Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education) Center -- HTML Writers Guild
• Color Accessibility Resources (thank you Kevin Bishop of RPI)
  • Designing for the Color-Challenged: A Challenge
  • ColorMax - Colorblind Science
  • "Safe web colours for colour-deficient vision," by Christine Rigden
  • Vischeck's free tool that produces red/green colorblind simulations of web pages
  • More on design for vision impairments and other accessibility issues
• Articles
  • A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Accessibility
  • Accessible Forms
  • Accessible and Usable Forms: Guidelines, examples and JavaScript tricks
  • "Is PDF accessibility still an issue? The short answer is YES"
  • Tech Soup: Accessiblity Articles and Resources
  • Man Sues Airlines for Fare Access
  • AOL Settles Accessibility Suit
  • "Making Web Sites Work for People With Disabilities " - article from the Chronicle of Higher Education (2/2/01)

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