Accessibility

Pursuant to HB24-1454

Q3 2024 Update: October 1, 2024

Project Title:

Government Website Accessibility Enhancement

Project Overview:

The Denver County Court maintains a strong commitment to removing barriers from access to justice and is committed to ensuring that all of our public facing websites are accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with House Bill HB21-1110, House Bill HB24-1454, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. HB21-1110 initially mandated that government websites and services conform to the WCAG2.1AA standard by July 1, 2024; and HB24-1454 extended that date to July 1, 2025 provided a good faith effort was being shown, and documented via a progress to date report, which must be posted on the forward facing pages of public facing websites and updated quarterly.

The project involves auditing, remediating and enhancing digital content and functionality accross all of the Denver County Court’s public facing websites. As a coequal independent branch of government, the Denver County Court’s websites are separate and distinct from websites operated by the City & county of Denver.

This progress to date report and the quarterly updates made to the report as required by HB24-1454 prior to the July 1st, 2025 “go-live” date are the only official reports. Other reports which may be issued by the City & County of Denver do not apply to the Denver County Court.

Project Complexity:

1. Difficulty: Moderate – (Requires informal project plan.)
2. Resources: Heavy – (Mostly human resource needs. Some software requirements.)
3. Time: Moderate – (Downgraded to slight due to HB24-1454.)
4. Budget: N/A

Challenges and Mitigations:

1. Other legislative priorities for 2024 and 2025 requiring developer involvement
2. Urgent need to prioritize replacement of legacy programs that utilize programming language no longer supported;
3. Notification of engagement conference for City and County of Denver IT risk audit

Project Objectives and status of Progress to Date:

1. Review HB21-1100, WCAG 2.1AA in their entirety by key members of the Court’s executive leadership and supervisory team; – Completed
2. Review Department of Justice (DOJ) requirements regarding WCAG 2.1AA and government operated public facing websites; – Completed
3. Review state judicial and the City and County of Denver’s technology services documents, trainings, proposed best practices, etc. on these compliance topics – Completed
4. Identify areas needing improvement and plan sequencing and assigned staff for making those improvements; – Completed
5. Draft, make ready for posting the Denver County Court’s policy statement for digital accessibility on or before July 1, 2024; – Completed
6. Create feedback channel for public to submit suggestions for modification or enhancements to our public facing websites; – Completed
7. Perform comprehensive review and analysis of www.DenverCountyCourt.org consisting of more than 400 individual web pages and several hundred forms; and the court’s more recently created public portal at Public.DenverCountyCourt.org; – Completed
8. Review prior testing audit results performed by human participants with real life disabilities (visual, auditory, and physical) as performed on www.DenverCountyCourt.org in June 2018; – Completed
9. Review prior testing audit results performed by software as performed on www.DenverCountyCourt.org in June 2018; – Completed
10. Purchase more modern and enhanced website template with a more robust WCAG 2.1AA compliant theme, and begin development of new/improved public facing website www.DenverCountyCourt.org; – Completed
11. Review color contrasts for compliance and make corrections where necessary; – Completed & Continuous
12. Review of visual navigation indicators via navigation using keyboard (tab button); – Completed & Continuous
13. Ensure public facing website is adaptable to portrait or landscape view as well as mobile friendly views – Completed
14. Review current online documents and forms to determine necessity, compliance needs or general deletion from websites; – In Progress
15. Review of text and font with corrections where necessary; – Completed & Continuous
16. Review resizing of text excluding captions and images, up to 200% without loss of content or functionality; – Completed
17. Review of alternative text on all non-exempted images, graphics, logos, etc. with corrections where necessary; – Completed
18. Ensuring indicators and alternative (alt) text appears for input purposes (e.g. input boxes/fields state ‘search’, etc.); – Completed
19. Ensuring captioning is active on all videos and in the language in which the video is provided (i.e. advisement video in English will be captioned in English, advisement video in Spanish will be captioned in Spanish); – Completed
20. Review websites to ensure compliance with ‘time-out’ requirements; – Completed
21. Review websites to ensure compliance with no flashing content exceeding 3 flashes per second – Completed
22. Review web page titles for purpose; – Completed
23. Draft and post on first page of Denver County Court’s public facing websites, the Digital Accessibility Progress-To-Date report (this document) prior to July 1, 2024 as required by HB24-1454; – Completed
    1. Provide the required quarterly update to the Digital Accessibility Progress-To-Date report during the third quarter; – Initial Progress Report Completed (Q3 2024 Progress to Date Report Completed)
    2. Provide the required quarterly update to the Digital Accessibility Progress-To-Date report during the first quarter of 2025; – Future Date
    3. Provide the required quarterly update to the Digital Accessibility Progress-To-Date report on or before during the second quarter of April 1, 2025; – Future Date
    4. Provide the final required quarterly update to the Digital Accessibility Progress-To-Date report on or before July 1, 2025 and make any necessary changes; – Future Date
24. Implement necessary enhancements, changes, and remediations to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards; – In Progress & Continuous
    1. Although not required, where possible without an expanded level of effort, implement necessary enhancements, changes, and remediations to the WCAG 2.1 AAA compliance level; – Future Voluntary Enhancements
25. Create process for ensuring proper vetting of future website enhancements or additions to ensure continued compliance; – Pending
26. Conduct a comprehensive software based accessibility audit of all Denver County Court’s public facing websites; – Completed (Remediation processes, if any, will be reflected in Q4 2024 update)
27. Conduct a comprehensive human based accessibility audit of all Denver County Court’s public facing websites utilizing where possible persons with visual, auditory, motor and cognitive disabilities; – Pending (Status will be reflected in Q4 2024 update)
28. Establish a process for ongoing accessibility monitoring and maintenance; – Pending
29. Review to ensure programmatically identifying human language of each page (e.g. specify page as English language in code where necessary); – Completed
30. Review of hover and focus actions for compliance; – Completed
31. Review of abbreviations and acronyms for ability to easily identify their meaning; – Completed
32. Review of error detection and recommendations provided to rectify (e.g. ‘error message: you may only enter numbers in the telephone number field’); – Pending
33. Perform full legal, financial, and data error detection; – Pending
34. Review of ‘help’ functions; – Pending
35. Create checklist guide and documentation for future enhancements, maintenance and changes to websites; – Pending
36. Determine, create and implement ongoing compliance monitoring and maintenance plan; – Pending

Conclusion – Progress to Date:

The Denver County Court has made significant progress towards achieving compliance with Colorado HB21-1110 and is on-track to meet the initial July 1, 2024 deadline specified in HB21-1110. Additionally, the passage of HB24-1454 enables the court to expand where needed additional reviews and remediations for compliance with WCAG 2.1AA.

The continued focus on accessibility guidelines by the court helps us in fulfilling our mission, removing barriers for access to justice and will ensure that our public facing websites remain and are accessible to all.

Revised: March, 2024

The Denver County Court (Court) has a long and proud history of removing barriers that hinder access to justice and remains committed to our efforts of providing accessibility to our services, including digital services, to the citizens and denizens of Colorado and the public whom we serve. The Court remains committed to the principles of providing access to our digital content enabling persons with disabilities to engage, access, interact with, and receive digital services in a perceivable, operable and understandable format. The Court is continually striving to improve the user experience for everyone while applying the relevant accessibility standards.

The Court views accessibility and efforts related to that endeavor as an ongoing commitment and service to the public, with an overarching goal of having an active and continuous improvement methodology that will help make the digital services we provide meaningfully and equally accessibility to all users, regardless of any physical, sensory, cognitive, or mobility disabilities.

As of July 2024, the Court has established a written plan to lay out the framework for current and future efforts ensuring we continuously work towards meeting, continuing to meet, or exceeding Web Content Accessibility Guidelines under WCAG version 2.1, Level AA; as well as continuing to test our own systems for any shortcomings or remediations that may need to take place to ensure accessibility. The guidelines set forth in WCAG 2.1 AA explain ways to make digital content more accessible to persons with disabilities.

Our commitment to this endeavor utilizes a four pronged approach to our continuous improvement process.

• Internal, continuous self-evaluation of our digital platforms
• External evaluations of our digital platforms using available technology and software
• External evaluations of our digital platforms performed by persons with disabilities and life experiences with barriers to digital access
• Public feedback

We welcome the opportunity to receive meaningful feedback and engage in meaningful dialogue for suggested modifications and / or improvements to our digital platforms. Feedback can be provided via the following two methods:

The Court is committed to responding to feedback within five 5 business days or less, upon receipt of the feedback.

If an accommodation under the Americans with Disability Act is being requested for an in-person or virtual court proceeding, please visit see the information below.

The Denver County Court is part of the City and County of Denver governmental structure, and simultaneously is also a separate and coequal branch of government for the City and County of Denver. To that end, this Digital Accessibility Statement is separate and distinct from any policy statement for any other City and County of Denver agency, department, or public entity and applies only to the Denver County Court.

The Court’s Digital Accessibility Statement is subject to change based upon updates in accessibility guidelines, technological advancements, or feedback received.