Website Accessibility Policy for the Registrar of Voters for Alameda County

 

General Policy. It is the policy of the Registrar of Voters for Alameda County (“the Registrar”) to ensure that persons with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to benefit from the goods, services, privileges, advantages, and accommodations offered by the Registrar through his website. The Registrar provides effective communication with persons with disabilities, and ensures that individuals with disabilities are not excluded from them by the Registrar’s policies, standards, criteria, or methods of administration.

 

Web Accessibility. The Registrar provides online content in the following manner to ensure it is accessible to individuals with disabilities on its website:

 

  • All new web pages, web applications, and content published to the Registrar’s website for public use shall conform to the Level A and Level AA Success Criteria and Conformance Requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.1 (June 5, 2018), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”).

 

  • The Registrar provides a notice, prominently and directly linked from his website’s homepage, soliciting feedback from visitors on how accessibility can be improved and providing contact information for staff members knowledgeable concerning this policy.

 

  • The Registrar annually distributes this Policy to all personnel that design, develop, maintain, manage, or otherwise have responsibility for the content and format of his website.

 

  • The Registrar has designated and publicized his Digital Services Team as the department that is knowledgeable concerning WCAG 2.1 AA and web accessibility generally, is available as a resource for employees and contractors who create, post, or modify website content, and is available as a public point of contact for information technology accessibility issues.

 

  • The Registrar ensures that his Digital Service Team members and County IT personnel who work with the Digital Services Team on his website receive at least annual training on web accessibility. The Registrar also ensures that contractors who perform work on his website are familiar with WCAG 2.1 AA.

 

  • The Registrar regularly conducts automated tests of his website for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA. He also annually conducts both manual testing of his website for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA and enlists individuals with a variety of disabilities to test his website for accessibility.

 

  • The Registrar has retained WebAIM as a Web Accessibility Consultant to annually evaluate his website for conformance with WCAG 2.1 to the Level A and Level AA

 

 

Success Criteria and other Conformance Requirements, and the requirements of this Policy. Each year, the Web Accessibility Consultant prepares a written report based on the evaluation, which identifies any barriers and provides recommendations to enhance the accessibility of the Registrar’s website.

 

Compliance with the Policy. The Registrar requires employees and contractors to comply with this policy.

 

Report any issues or feedback to digital.services@acgov.org.

 

 

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

The County of Alameda has entered into a settlement agreement (“Agreement”) with the National Federation of the Blind, which is posted on this website in its entirety.

Among other items, the Agreement provides:

  • That the County will purchase new voting equipment in time for the 2020 elections,
  • That the County will provide remote access vote by mail (RAVBM) (an accessible, electronic method of completing vote by mail ballots) for upcoming elections,
  • That the Registrar of Voters (“ROV”) will implement new training and procedures for poll workers at the polls, including the use of smartphones for real time troubleshooting,
  • That the ROV will provide two accessible voting machines at each vote center, and
  • That the County will make the ROV website compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1 AA standards.

The Agreement is for three years unless the terms are not satisfied, in which case it will extend for one more year. 

Voters with disabilities should know:

They have the right to file complaints with the ROV if accessibility issues arise during voting.  Complaints can be sent to: accessibilityrov@acgov.org