Web Accessibility Statement

Digital Accessibility Statement Purpose

A digital accessibility statement is one of the key building blocks of an organization's digital accessibility program. In addition to showing customers that the organization cares about accessibility and about individuals with disabilities, a digital accessibility statement:

Informs customers about the accessibility standards the organization is working to conform to for its digital assets.
Demonstrates a commitment to accessibility, and social responsibility.
Provides a method for customers to contact the organization with accessibility-related questions or problems.

A digital accessibility statement also can reduce legal exposure by:

Demonstrating intent. In court, such a statement shows that this initiative has management buy-in.
To the potential plaintiff firm trolling, a digital accessibility statement shows that the organization is aware of accessibility.

The digital accessibility statement should be easy to find such as from the footer, help menu, sitemap, about page, and other prominent and consistent areas. Use consistent link names for the digital accessibility statement, including links across the website and mobile applications, and across groups of related websites and mobile applications. For example, use the same link on all web pages to refer to a digital accessibility statement for that website, and use the same link to refer to the digital accessibility statement of the mobile version of the website.

Mecklenburg County Digital Accessibility Statement

Our Policy & Commitment

Mecklenburg County's mission is to provide the most enjoyable and informative experience to all our customers. This includes a commitment to accessibility, diversity and inclusion. We are working to ensure our websites and online services are accessible for all customers. We have made a commitment to conform to Level A and AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as most recently published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and comply with applicable accessibility laws and regulations including:

Digital Accessibility Statement

As we work toward meeting the WCAG Level A and Level AA standards, we continue to develop our digital accessibility compliance program, which includes coordination with our accessibility partners, advocacy groups and vendors to design, develop and test Mecklenburg County websites and online services for conformance to the standards.

Mecklenburg County Accessibility Features

Following are examples of some of the issues that we are addressing on Mecklenburg County websites and online services:

Structural Markup: We are working to ensure semantic elements and techniques are used – such as headings, lists, paragraphs, and WAI-ARIA markup – to help make sure that users of assistive technology can understand the content and navigate our site more easily.
Color and Contrast: We are working to ensure that text and non-text elements have sufficient contrast to make sure that users with low vision or color vision issues can accurately see everything on our site.
Content: We are making efforts to ensure content is properly labeled for users of voice recognition software and users with learning or cognitive impairments.
Text Equivalents: We are working to make sure that images and media on our websites are accessible through alternative text equivalents.
Keyboard Access: We are making efforts to help make sure that keyboard-only users can navigate and use Mecklenburg County websites and online services.
Consistency: We are working to apply accessibility best practices consistently across all Mecklenburg County websites and online services.

Contact

If you would like further information about Mecklenburg County’s digital accessibility efforts, or have other accessibility questions or feedback, please email web-ada@MeckNC.gov.