King County Web site accessibility

Equal access for one and all

King County is committed to ensuring equal access to all its programs and services, including its web site. In an effort to ensure equal access, King County established comprehensive guidelines for its web site designers so that information featured on its web site is accessible to all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

While not every need can be anticipated nor every barrier avoided, there are some key issues we've tried to address in an effort to maximize accessibility of our site:

• Simple, consistent page layout and standard navigation throughout the site to assist people with learning disabilities and others who may have difficulty following less organized presentations.
• Mandatory white page backgrounds to provide contrast for users with low vision or colorblindness.
• Standard HTML ensuring that site content can be accessed by all browsers.
• Use of ALT tags making alternative text information available for graphical features.
• Menu alternatives for image maps to ensure that embedded links are accessible for readers using text-based browsers.
• Smart use of tables, ensuring that tables are formatted so as to be accessible by non-standard browsers.
• Limited use of frames.
• Limited use of applets and plug-ins.

Want to learn more about web access at King County? Contact the Office of Civil Rights at 206-296-7592 or 206-296-7596 TTY or by e-mail at Civil-Rights.OCR@kingcounty.gov or see the web page at www.metrokc.gov/dias/ocre.