Our Commitment to Accessibility

The Weld RE-4 School District is committed to ensuring everyone feels welcome in our spaces — in person and online. This includes accessible digital content, like our website, for all members of our community, including individuals with disabilities in accordance with federal and state law.

Accessibility Practices

To help us make our website accessible, we are using the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1. The WCAG guidelines define three levels of accessibility. From lesser accessibility to greater accessibility these levels are A, AA, and AAA. Our goal is to ensure that digital content on our website meets or exceeds the AA requirements by July 1, 2024.

Feedback

We take accessibility seriously and are committed to monitoring our website and digital communication platforms regularly. Whether you’ve enjoyed using our website or if you had trouble with any part of it, please let us know by emailing us at engage@weldre4.org, filling out our online form, or providing a physical letter to 1020 Main Street, Windsor, CO 80550. If you have difficulty accessing information from our website (or through other communications), please include in your message:

  • The issue along with the URL / website address with the problem 
  • Device used (e.g., personal computer, iPhone)
  • Assistive technology used (e.g., screenreader), if applicable

Compliance Requirements

The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) makes it unlawful for any person to discriminate against an individual with a disability. Colorado HB21-1110, passed in 2021, strengthened existing laws providing protections to individuals with disabilities, specifically as those relate to accessibility to government information technology, and expanded CADA by defining discrimination to include:

  • Excluding an individual with a disability from participation in or being denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities provided by any Colorado government entity; and
  • Failing to fully comply with the accessibility standards for individuals with a disability developed by the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) by July 1, 2024.

Accessibility means perceivable, operable, and understandable digital content that reasonably enables an individual with a disability to access the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services offered to other individuals, with the same privacy, independence, and ease of use as exists for individuals without a disability. Digital content is any content that exists in digital form, regardless of its location.

HB21-1110 specifically applies to all technology including hardware and software that is both public-facing and internal-facing including any technology provided by or procured by a government entity that is used by the public or used by a government entity employee. This technology includes, but is not limited to, websites, applications, kiosks, digital signage, documents, video, audio and third-party tools. Additionally, applications, programs, and underlying operating systems must permit the installation and effective use of and be compatible with software and peripheral devices that provide accessibility to an individual with a disability.

By July 1, 2024, local governments are required to develop an accessibility plan using the accessibility standards developed by the OIT and be in full compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA Guidelines in the creation and publication of any online content and materials; including, but not limited to text, links, images, forms, PDFs, documents, and embedded third-party applications.

While the District works to implement the full requirements of HB21-1110, compliance is governed by HB24-1454, providing a one-year grace period for good faith compliance efforts. This document outlines the District’s efforts.

Ongoing Good Faith Efforts

Testing and Remediation

The District has purchased two separate testing tools to ensure accessibility on our website and learning management system (LMS). SilkTide is run on a regular basis on the District’s website located at weldre4.org. Reports are monitored and deficiencies are corrected as they are identified. Additionally, Pope Tech has been installed on the District’s LMS, and teachers can run the tool to ensure each course page meets accessibility requirements.

In addition to the testing tools outlined above, the District has also purchased a district-wide license for Grackle Workspace, allowing all District employees to run Grackle Docs, Grackle Slides, and Grackle Sheets to ensure and remediate for accessibility in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets respectively. Grackle also has a PDF export option to ensure accessible Google files remain accessible in PDF format.

Accessibility Training

The District has conducted accessibility training as early as January 2024, and training efforts are ongoing. Professional learning for accessibility is broken into two categories:

  • Mandatory Training
    • All District faculty and staff were required to complete an online mandatory training course during August and September of 2024. The asynchronous course covered the HB21-1110 law, its requirements, and key accessibility strategies.
  • Tool Specific Training
    • Grackle Workspace
      • Face-to-face training covering accessibility in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
    • ParentSquare
      • Face-to-face and synchronous webinar-style trainings to assist in creating and sending accessible communications via the ParentSquare platform.
    • PopeTech
      • Face-to-face trainings for all 6th - 12th grade teachers to ensure accessibility in Canvas LMS courses.

Accessibility Roadmap

The District continues to provide training opportunities for staff to improve accessibility skills and ensure accessible content district-wide. Additionally, the District is working to identify all third-party digital platforms in use and is assigning an accessibility contact for each tool that can assist with providing reasonable accommodations and alternative access in the future.

Accessibility Maturity

The District is currently at the following accessibility maturity level:

  • Inactive Stage

    • Status: Complete
    • Accessibility Criteria: No awareness and recognition of need. At this stage organizations are inventorying their technology, have begun to make investments.

  • Launch Stage

    • Status: Complete
    • Accessibility Criteria: Recognized need, organization-wide planning initiated, activities currently being organized.

  • Integrate Stage

    • Status: In-Progress
    • Accessibility Criteria: Roadmap including timeline is in place, overall organizational approach defined and well organized.

  • Optimize Stage

    • Status: Planning
    • Accessibility Criteria: Incorporated into the whole organization, consistently evaluated, and actions taken on assessment outcomes.

    Last updated October 2024.