The City of Boston is committed to making our website accessible to people with disabilities. CityofBoston.gov strongly adheres to W3C Guidelines for accessibility. In order to make our website work "for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, culture, location or physical or mental ability," we have focused on the following areas:
We provide a built in text size changing tool as well as instructions for changing browser text size.
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Whenever possible, information on CityofBoston.gov is published in HTML to eliminate the need for additional software.
However, our website does include links to some non-web files which require additional software. Users who need to view these files, but do not have the proper application are instructed to download the appropriate viewer. The basic versions of these applications are offered, at no cost, on the vendor's websites.
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PDFs
The Portable Document Format (PDF) file format is often used for the following business reasons:
When documents are published in PDF, the following efforts are made to ensure that they are accessible to the widest possible audience:
We use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a page's content.
The entire website can be translated with one click. 30+ language options include those most commonly spoken in Boston and the original English text pops up over the translated text so that the user can compare versions.
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All images presented to the user have a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. This is done for the benefit of users who are utilizing assistive technologies.
We redesigned our page templates and style sheets to make the site more accessible for screen readers, and improving readability for translation and search engines. Changes include:
We ensure that our webpages appear and operate in predictable ways by using consistent navigation and consistent identification. To this end, we make the following efforts:
Additionally, our site navigation is device independent. Full functionality is available via a keyboard and a mouse is not required.
Design
Online forms are accessible to people using assistive technology. All form controls have text labels, form elements have labels associated with them in their markup, and scripting of the form does not interfere with assistive technologies.
Input Assistance
Form field are labeled clearly and instructions are provided whenever necessary. If an error is detected, it is identified and described to the user. Whenever appropriate, a step is included for reviewing, confirming and correcting information before submission.
Contact information, including email, phone and name (when appropriate) is available on every page of the website. Content or department specific contact information is available as well as a general 24x7 contact number.
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The City is working to bridge the "Digital Divide" by creating WiFi hot spots all around Boston and making internet access available at libraries and community centers throughout the city.
Pages are designed and tested for compatibility with all major web browsers and operating systems.
The mobile version of CityofBoston.gov website is optimized for 5,000+ mobile devices, providing mobile phone users with quick and easy access to the information they want most.
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None of the pages on our website contain anything that flashes or flickers in a way that is known to cause seizures.
