Report 2014-131 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2014-131: California State Government Websites: Departments Must Improve Website Accessibility So That Persons With Disabilities Have Comparable Access to State Services Online (Release Date: June 2015)

Recommendation #3 To: Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

To ensure that it addresses barriers to the accessibility of its website for persons with disabilities, Community Colleges should, no later than December 1, 2015, correct the accessibility violations we found during our review.

6-Month Agency Response

As of the date of this response, all accessibility violations found during the review have been corrected and are now live with the release of version 5.3 on 12/4/15. The release was delayed from its original target to allow for enough time for a third-party review of the application suite by The Paciello Group (TPG), a firm recognized for its expertise in this area. Their review is complete, but their final report is not expected until 12/7/15. Rather than delay this response any more, we decided to submit the final report separately.

Included with this communication is an updated version of the spreadsheet provided by the Auditor's offices from the review. This spreadsheet is entitled Community Colleges Results_6mos_Update.

Note: Two parts of the Open CCC Apply suite, namely the BOG Fee Waiver and International application are also being reviewed by TPG separately as per Recommendation 7. Please see our response to Recommendation 7 for details.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

We are in the process of working with our programmers to fully address the barriers to accessibility found by the audit.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2014-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.