At the Employment Security Department (ESD), 3 of our core values are access, equity and stewardship. Our accessibility plan reflects these values. The plan also outlines how we execute Washington state's digital accessibility mandates. We want to be sure that our digital products and services are usable for all.
Accessibility policy
All digital content must meet or exceed the Office of the Chief Information Officer Policy USER-01 – Accessibility, which specifies a minimum standard of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA.
- Go to the WaTech website to read the policy and the minimum standard.
- Go to the W3C website to read WCAG 2.1, level AA.
Non-accessible digital content published before the date of this policy must be included in the Prioritized List of Non-accessible Covered Technologies. And we must work to correct the issues.
If we have an "undue burden" to bringing our technology into compliance, we must get written authorization to postpone or bypass the issue. Authorization needs to come from our chief information officer or a designee prior to publishing the digital content. The issue also must be documented in the Prioritized List of Non-accessible Covered Technologies.
How we support digital accessibility
ESD:
- Includes digital accessibility as part of our mission statement.
- Integrates digital accessibility into our procurement practices.
- Has an accessibility coordinator.
- Provides continual digital accessibility training for our staff.
- Includes people with disabilities in our design personas.
How we assess our digital accessibility
ESD assessed the digital accessibility of its services and programs by both automatic and manual testing. The Prioritized List of Non-accessible Covered Technologies documents the known digital accessibility barriers and the remediation plans for them. This list will be available soon.
Our current status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. ESD partly conforms with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Some content does not fully conform to the accessibility standard.
Known digital accessibility issues
- Most PDFs do not conform to WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
- Some color combinations do not conform with WCAG 2.1 AA.
If you need an accommodation, please use the resources on the Equal opportunity page.
How to provide feedback
We welcome your feedback on our digital accessibility. Please let us know if you encounter barriers on our websites or have any questions about our digital accessibility.
- Email us at ESDGPWebAccessibility@esd.wa.gov.
- Complete the ESD Website Accessibility Barriers Report Form.
We try to respond to feedback within 5 business days.