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Articles and News

Recommendation for An Information Technology Accessibility Law for The State of Maine

The State of Maine IT Accessibility Committee (ITAC) held their annual meeting at Maple Hill Farm in August of 2004. At that meeting, an IT Accessibility Law Workgroup (ALW) was chartered to research and review whether a Maine state law requiring information technology (IT) accessibility would result in better access for individuals with disabilities to State information systems than the current Maine policies and standards regarding computer application (see www.state.me.us/CIO/accessibility/software_policy.htm ) and website accessibility (see www.state.me.us/CIO/accessibility/policy/webpolicy.htm ).

The IT ALW members included: Floyd White, Chair; Carolyn Bebee; Jon Steuerwalt; and Carmen Fournier . They met approximately every three weeks since the fall of 2004.

READ THE REPORT

 

Maine State Library Webmaster Ellen Wood receives this year's MERIT Award

The Maine Excellence Recognition in Information Technology (MERIT) award was established to acknowledge a team and an individual each year from state government technology staff. The individual MERIT award recognizes outstanding leadership by an individual whose efforts had a broad-range impact felt beyond their jurisdiction. The award was presented September 27th by the Chief Information Officer Dick Thompson at the Maine Fusion 05 Technology Conference in Augusta. Ellen, also Chairperson of the Web IT Accessibility Committee, was praised for her successful work in improving accessibility for disabled citizens and employees. Her efforts established a process to ensure improved accessibility now and in the future for all State of Maine web pages.

Quarterly Web Accessibility Workshop August 9, 2005

The goal of the workshop was to leave the audience with a lasting impression. Three panel members with visual impairments discussed their experiences and frustrations with PDF documents.

New Master Template Provides Optional and Editable Optional Regions

June 21st InforME provided a new master template using Dreamweaver's Option Editable Regions. This allows pages based upon the master template to turn regions on and off on a page-by-page basis. The specific changes are:

  • The editable regions have been converted to optional editable regions (retaining the same names).
  • The breadcrumb trail is now contained within a div tag rather than a paragraph.
  • An optional region to place the search box in the black navigation bar has been added as an alternative to the header placement.
  • The general.css style sheet was updated to add the styles needed for the new search box within the black navigation bar.

Maine - Setting an Example for Web Accessibility

Members of the Web Sub-Committee were invited by EASI (Easy Access to Software and Information) to present Maine's web accessibility history, including topics ranging from the technical challenges associated with creating and maintaining accessible web pages to navigating the political landscape surrounding accessibility issues. The online web conference, "The Collaborative Road to Maine State Web Accessibility" was held June 23, 2005, and a was a great success.

NexTalk

This software application installs on Windows PCs and will eventually serve as a viable alternative to TTY's for the deaf and hard of hearing within all state government agencies. It was implemented as a pilot project with the Department of Labor and achieved great success. It has been distributed to most of the smaller agencies, and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the final and largest agency to install the software. The project team at the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the EEOC coordinator for DHHS are finalizing a conversion plan. This plan will be implemented in phases for a smooth transition and to remove any barriers as we offer this new powerful, yet user friendly, tool throughout state government.