Skip To Main Content

Evidence of an Accessibility Plan

Thompson School District is committed to ensuring accessibility to digital content for all community members, including individuals with disabilities, in accordance with federal and state law.

Accessibility Standards Applied

The Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has developed accessibility technical standards with the intent of providing enterprise standard configurations for technologies that provide service to those with disabilities, following the technical standards provided by:

Our Efforts

Thompson School District is committed to ensuring our digital content is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. Accessibility means that all digital content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, allowing everyone to access the same information and services easily.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination based on disability and requires us to provide reasonable accommodations and accessible communications. Similarly, Colorado House Bill 21-1110 mandates that all government entities, including Thompson School District, meet accessibility standards to ensure no one is excluded from receiving services due to a lack of accessibility.

We have established an Accessibility Committee to develop and implement our accessibility plan, which includes the following key areas:

  • Requirements: We aim to ensure that the district’s digital media meets or exceeds the Level AA requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1.
  • Ongoing Review: We will conduct regular accessibility audits of all district and school websites, documents, and other digital content and implement necessary improvements to ensure accessibility.
  • Training and Awareness: We will train staff on accessibility best practices, ensuring everyone is equipped to create and maintain accessible content.

Accessibility compliance is an ongoing journey. We will provide regular updates on our progress and continue to seek ways to enhance accessibility across all our digital platforms.

Accessibility Maturity

Thompson School District has identified that we are at the Launch stage of the state's accessibility maturity level for January 2025.

Stage Criteria
Inactive No awareness and recognition of need. At this stage organizations are inventorying their technology, have begun to make investments, etc.
Launch Recognized need organization-wide. Planning initiated, but activities not well organized.
Integrate Roadmap including timeline is in place, overall organizational approach defined and well organized.
Optimize Incorporated into the whole organization, consistently evaluated, and actions taken on assessment outcomes.

Why We Are At This Stage

January Update

The district has made notable progress in raising awareness and addressing initial accessibility issues, but challenges in skill gaps, practice implementation, and time allocation persist. While smaller teams have shown success, larger divisions require additional support and resources to maintain consistent progress. Migration issues with digital content further highlight the need for improved processes and tools.

October Updates

We have made great progress since HB21-1110 has passed, considering substantial challenges to Thompson School District:

  • Limited budget for our program: $15,000 for accessibility monitoring and compliance tools
  • Current vendors are being inventoried, and determinations on exceptions are ongoing
  • Large organization with site-based management
  • Paradigm shift and discomfort with change
  • Minimal access to professional learning time for users

Organizational Measures

January Updates

  • Through great collaboration between Communications, Learning Services, and high school staff members, the district transitioned from a large PDF course catalog to an online High School Course Guide, enhancing accessibility and user experience.
  • The district is actively working to ensure outward-facing products meet accessibility standards, providing support across various teams and departments.
  • Advocates and leaders across the district have been identified to champion accessibility efforts, bringing their expertise and leadership to these initiatives.
  • Professional development modules have been implemented district-wide to increase accessibility awareness and skill development.
  • Teams have started focusing on easily manageable accessibility improvements, successfully resolving initial issues to foster progress and build momentum.
  • Plans are underway to streamline content editing processes, particularly for migrated materials that exhibit accessibility gaps.
  • Monthly or quarterly accessibility forums are being considered to foster collaboration and address team-specific questions and challenges.

October Updates

  • Extra duty contracts created for school and Learning Services web/social media coordinators (approximately $32,000)
  • District Divisions are reminding their leadership to pay attention to the Accessibility guidelines.
  • Included accessibility into our procurement processes: “Software Request & Onboarding Process Flow” and RFP process.
  • Defined a technology accessibility transition plan with a timeline, goals, roles, and responsibilities for our organization.
  • District-wide staff provided an online professional learning module entitled “Digital Accessibility Concepts” to complete.
  • We created an Inclusive Design online resource guide for district staff use.
  • The District Board of Education presentation, policy, and memo templates were updated for accessibility.
  • We have provided contact information and support for receiving accessibility feedback and accommodation requests online or by phone.
  • Integrated accessibility requirements into our technology development stages, including design, development, user experience, and quality assurance.
  • We will continue to create and post on front-facing web pages a progress-to-date report that is updated quarterly and demonstrates concrete and specific efforts toward compliance with the OIT rules.
  • We will continue to self-audit websites, digital content, and software within the organization to locate areas for improvement.
  • Over 24% of district board policies are available on tsd.org in HTML format, available for translation.
  • High school course descriptions were imported into the website, and an online edition of the course guide is under development.
  • Over 26% of school family guides/handbooks are available on school websites in an accessible and translatable format.

Next Steps

  • Conduct targeted training to address skill gaps and enhance accessibility practices across all divisions.
  • Expand support structures for larger divisions to align their progress with smaller, successful teams.
  • Develop and implement a coordinated approach to resolving content migration issues and ensuring consistent accessibility in digital materials.
  • Establish regular accessibility forums to provide a platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration, and addressing specific accessibility concerns.
  • Monitor the effectiveness of the professional development module and make adjustments to better meet district needs.
  • Enhance accountability mechanisms to ensure accessibility requirements are met across all teams and departments.

Last updated January 31, 2025.

Adopted by the Thompson School District Superintendent's Cabinet on February 6, 2025.