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Evidence of Accessibility

Our Efforts to Optimize Accessibility

In June 2021, the State of Colorado passed House Bill 21-1110, a law that strengthened state discrimination laws for individuals with disabilities. It ensures that all individuals have access to digital content created by local government entities, including school districts. The law went into effect on July 1, 2025.

GALS is committed to making our site accessible for all users, internal and external. If you find any accessibility issue with the site, please contact Reilly Selinger at timeri.tolnay@galsdenver.org or phone the front office at (303) 282-6437.

HB21-1110, Colorado Laws For Persons With Disabilities, strengthens current Colorado law related to protections against discrimination on the basis of disability for persons with disabilities, specifically as those laws relate to accessibility to government information technology. The added provisions include:

  • Prohibiting a person with a disability from being excluded from participating in or being denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity or a state agency;
  • Clarifying that such prohibition includes the failure of a public entity or state agency to develop an accessibility plan and fully comply, on or before July 1, 2024, with accessibility guidelines established by the office of information technology (office);
  • Any Colorado agency with the authority to promulgate rules shall not promulgate a rule that provides less protection than that provided by the "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990".

GALS HB21-1110 Compliance Plan

In an effort to comply with the law, GALS has prioritized making its digital content compliant with HB21-1110 through its establishment of dedicated work streams that ensure the district meets statutory requirements, management of vendor relationships (working with vendors that comply with the law), and dedicating resources to achieve the district’s compliance goals.

One of the main focuses of our efforts has been to ensure that our digital services and content complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA Guidelines and standards.

Website Compliance Plan

  1. We have installed Accessibility by UserWay, which gives any user control over the site appearance, including color contrast, text spacing, the ability to hide images, and the ability to add a focused reader bar, among many other tools.
  2. We have worked through the WCAG compliance requirements and have added alts to images, adjusted headings to be logical for tabbing through the website, and ensured buttons are large and visible.
  3. GALS will continue to test and update the site on an ongoing basis. 

Staff Training 

  1. GALS will require mandatory training for all staff and new employees as well as annual refresher training.
  2. GALS will require all staff who prepare content for the website or adjust the website design to be fully aware of the requirements for compliance. 

Application Compliance 

  1. GALS will review procurement documentation to ensure vendor compliance with HB21-1110 before approval
  2. Vendors who cannot meet necessary compliance will be replaced.
  3. GALS will audit and mitigate all internal applications to ensure compliance. 

Documents and other Digital Resource Compliance 

  1. GALS will use Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for all employee documents. Employees, board members, and other stakeholders will be required use guides to check for accessibility.
  2. GALS will use Canva Accessibility tools for all resources created using Canva.
  3. GALS will use the Microsoft Office accessibility checker in MS Office products as needed.
  4. GALS will use the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat as needed
  5. GALS will use various tools to continue auditing reports and mitigate as needed to become accessible.
  6. GALS will revise branding guidelines to ensure accessibility with colors and fonts. 

Ongoing Support and Oversight 

  1. GALS will continue to define long-term processes
  2. Identifying who will assist in this work long term
  3. Putting in place processes to support this work moving forward 2. Undue Burden Process
  4. GALS will establish an Accessibility Committee that will review undue burden requests and feedback.
  5. GALS will create a process to review and approve/deny undue burden requests
  6. c. GALS will regularly review non-compliant applications under an Accessibility Hardship Feedback Process
  7. Created and implemented a plan to receive and process feedback on digital content including two ways of contact.
  8. Created and implemented a plan to resolve feedback on digital content.
  9. GALS will create an employee policy and protocol to ensure all Denver Public Schools Staff are in compliance with HB21-1110. 

Accessibility Maturity

GALS is at the following accessibility maturity level for 2025.

x         Integrated             

Roadmap including timeline is in place, overall organizational approach defined and well organized.

Our goal is to move to Optimize - Incorporated into the whole organization, consistently evaluated, and actions taken on assessment outcomes.

GALS Is Making Ongoing Efforts to Move to “Optimize”

  1. GALS continues to work on obtaining additional technology and personnel to assist it in maintaining accessible compliance.
  2. GALS continues to look for vendors that meet the required accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2 AA).