"Website Accessibility is a hot topic in education right now. Schools, districts, and teachers work to build websites for our communities with lots of information to share. Accessibility is not always at the forefront of our minds while we design.
I work for NYC Schools. In 2016 we were hit with a lawsuit from the Office of Civil rights because our website wasn't accessible. We, the department of education, went into an agreement to make accessibility corrections for not just our website but also for the 1300 individual school websites in NYC.
It's been an enormous undertaking and it's ongoing. We've learned a lot of do's and don't's. We've also identified the elements any district, school, or teacher can do to improve their website's accessibility. I'd like to see schools provide more accessible websites to support all members of their communities."
Clay Smith
NYC could lose billions in federal funds if they do not comply with website accessibility laws for all of their schools.