Some functions are native and happen automatically but others are new tools and missing tools we had to add. We added caption/alt text options for images if they were missing, the ability to add transcripts for audio and video, as well as a "skip to content" option. We do not have any audit tool in our system but schools are free to use whatever they prefer. From there any flags should be resolvable using the items we have released.
I came from the higher education where ADA trolling is a big thing. Legal teams are able to use tools like WAVE accessibility tracker to easily find errors on sites, and attempt to collect money from institutions of higher education. Fines can also be collected by the Office for Civil Rights. Minimizing exposure to ADA trolls and for the OCR is one motivating factor to cleaning up ADA compliance, but it is also just 'the right thing to do.' There may be differently abled people on our k-12 campus, and we want to make sure they have a good experience when interacting with our sites.
I was disappointed to see that this only has 14 votes, and also a little discouraged that something that could result in massive fines for our institutions needs to be voted on at all. I understand that this is an expensive and frustrating thing for BlackBaud to prioritize, but that's just the reality, I'm afraid.
The good news is: I was recently at a BlackBaud "roadshow" where they discussed the roadmap, and ADA was mentioned by the BlackBaud rep, which I took as a really good sign. I think BlackBaud is aware of the issue and I have found them to be pretty responsive so far. I'm a fan! BlackBaud, thanks for your attention in fixing this!
P.S. we used SiteImprove at my previous place of employment and it is great for detecting errors, but you'd be frustrated to purchase it, generate a list of fixes, only to be stuck with no solution since some of the work needs to be done on the BlackBaud side. That said, it would also help you detect things that you can fix yourself.
As it relates to video: CC would be great, and that is part of the battle, but we also need a field for video descriptions.
A company called SiteImprove is contacting lots of area independent schools offering a service to identify non-accessible areas of our websites. Would be nice if this was part of BBK12 service and training instead of an outside vendor.
Guest
Some functions are native and happen automatically but others are new tools and missing tools we had to add. We added caption/alt text options for images if they were missing, the ability to add transcripts for audio and video, as well as a "skip to content" option. We do not have any audit tool in our system but schools are free to use whatever they prefer. From there any flags should be resolvable using the items we have released.
Anthony - does this update means sites are now natively compliant, or did you add tools to audit ADA compliance (or both)?
With our July and August releases we added missing functionality that allows our sites to be fully WCAG 2.1 AA compliant.
Hi all,
I came from the higher education where ADA trolling is a big thing. Legal teams are able to use tools like WAVE accessibility tracker to easily find errors on sites, and attempt to collect money from institutions of higher education. Fines can also be collected by the Office for Civil Rights. Minimizing exposure to ADA trolls and for the OCR is one motivating factor to cleaning up ADA compliance, but it is also just 'the right thing to do.' There may be differently abled people on our k-12 campus, and we want to make sure they have a good experience when interacting with our sites.
Here are a few related links:
I was disappointed to see that this only has 14 votes, and also a little discouraged that something that could result in massive fines for our institutions needs to be voted on at all. I understand that this is an expensive and frustrating thing for BlackBaud to prioritize, but that's just the reality, I'm afraid.
The good news is: I was recently at a BlackBaud "roadshow" where they discussed the roadmap, and ADA was mentioned by the BlackBaud rep, which I took as a really good sign. I think BlackBaud is aware of the issue and I have found them to be pretty responsive so far. I'm a fan! BlackBaud, thanks for your attention in fixing this!
P.S. we used SiteImprove at my previous place of employment and it is great for detecting errors, but you'd be frustrated to purchase it, generate a list of fixes, only to be stuck with no solution since some of the work needs to be done on the BlackBaud side. That said, it would also help you detect things that you can fix yourself.
As it relates to video: CC would be great, and that is part of the battle, but we also need a field for video descriptions.
Our librarians are asking specifically for Closed Captions on videos for a start.
A company called SiteImprove is contacting lots of area independent schools offering a service to identify non-accessible areas of our websites. Would be nice if this was part of BBK12 service and training instead of an outside vendor.