Murray State University
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Abstract

An often-overlooked component of a school district website is the necessity for that website to be accessible to those with disabilities, while following the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act. This study investigated the accessibility of school district websites in Kentucky by selecting a random sample of 50 school districts and analyzing their home pages using WAVE (Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator), which reports accessibility violations by annotating a copy of the page that was evaluated and presenting embedded icons and indicators to disclose breaches with ADA. Out of 50 districts, 35 had errors that need immediate attention and all 50 districts had alerts of likely violations that ranged from alt-text omissions and empty links to issues with color contrast and font sizes. The article proceeds to give practical suggestions for eradicating many of the errors, even for those shareholders with less than sophisticated technological expertise.

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