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Accessibility Progress Report

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) is committed to ensuring all Coloradans have equal access to services. We are actively working to make all of our programs, activities, and information accessible to all individuals and compliant with state and federal requirements.

For information about how to submit feedback or request accommodations, please visit the Accessibility and Accommodations page. 

Accessibility Standards

OEDIT follows HB21-1110 and SB23-244, the Accessibility Laws for Colorado State and Local Government, and the Technology Accessibility Standards for Persons with Disabilities from the Office of Information Technology. Although our goal is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA conformance, we have also applied some Level AAA success criteria and accessibility best practices to improve every digital touchpoint within our services, programs and activities.

Accessibility Goals and Strategies

OEDIT is committed to an ongoing process of evaluating and evolving our technologies in order to achieve digital equity for all. Ongoing efforts to make all digital content accessible include: 

  • Establishing accessibility governance policy.
  • Staff training on accessibility best practices.
  • Website and application testing and remediation.
  • Document review and remediation.
  • Integrating accessibility into our procurement processes.

OEDIT, the Governor’s Office, and the Colorado Energy Office share two full time employees dedicated to accessibility work. 

Progress

Inventory of Digital Assets

Complete: 

  • Inventory of websites and applications with corresponding product owners completed in March 2022.
  • Tracking sheet for staff with web access created in March 2022.

Ongoing:

  • Inventories updated as needed to reflect staff changes and add or remove digital properties.
  • Primary web editors added to Siteimprove upon onboarding.
     

Accessibility and Accommodations Statement 

Complete:

  • Accessibility statement added to the main OEDIT website in July 2022. 
  • Accessibility statement added to the Choose Colorado website in January 2023. 
  • Accessibility statement added to the Small Business Development Center Network lead website in April 2023. 
  • Accessibility and accommodations statement updated and added to all remaining office websites in October 2023. The updated statement provides both an email and phone number for submitting accessibility feedback or accommodation requests.

Ongoing: 

  • Feedback and accommodation requests are addressed and tracked as they are received.
  • Accessibility statement is added to new digital properties as they are created.

Hire Accessibility Support Staff

Complete: 

  • Accessible Program Coordinator hired in August 2023.
  • Remediation Support Specialist hired in December 2024. 

Establish Accessibility Governance Policies And Best Practices

Complete:

  • OEDIT Accessibility Governance Policy created and distributed to staff in October 2023.
  • OEDIT Accessibility Accommodations Policy created and distributed to staff in June 2024.
  • Updated job descriptions to include accessibility language in June 2024.

Create Working Groups

Complete:

  • Monthly accessibility working group meeting for leadership and communication staff from the Governor’s Office, the Colorado Energy Office, and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade established in June 2023.
  • Accessibility working group meeting for marketing and communication staff established in September 2023.
  • Monthly accessible procurement working group meeting established in December 2023.

Staff Training And Support

Complete:

  • Senior Marketing Manager began presenting accessibility topics to staff and hosting subject matter experts on various accessibility topics starting in April 2022.
  • Accessibility topic added to marketing and communications biweekly meeting beginning in April 2022.
  • Accessibility page on office intranet site created to share resources and policies in March 2023.
  • Accessibility training incorporated into yearly all-staff meetings beginning in May 2023.
  • Mandatory digital accessibility training courses assigned to all staff beginning in October, 2023. Staff are required to complete this training annually.
  • Accessibility request form created for staff questions, feedback, or submitting content for an accessibility review in January 2024.
  • Procurement resources folder on shared drive created and shared with staff beginning in January 2024.
  • CommonLook PDF licenses distributed to staff to support PDF remediation in June 2024.
  • Grackle licenses distributed to staff to support remediation of Google Workspace products in July 2024. 

Ongoing:

  • Additional resources are routinely added to or updated on the Accessibility intranet page.
  • Additional procurement resources added as requested or needed. 

Website Remediation

Complete:

  • External developer began making accessibility updates to the Choose Colorado website in December 2022.
  • Contracted with a vendor for manual website testing in February 2024.
  • Manual accessibility testing of webpages completed in May 2024.
  • Tickets submitted to the vendor managing the colorado.gov platform to escalate issues identified during manual audit in May 2024.

Ongoing:

  • A weekly review is completed to address issues found through automated testing.
  • Escalation of issues completed as needed to address issues identified through automated testing.

Document Remediation

Complete:

  • Document inventory spreadsheet created and staff from all divisions asked to begin adding and prioritizing documents in need of remediation in May 2023.
  • Accessibility request form created for staff to submit documents for an accessibility review. Shared with staff starting in January 2024.
  • Contracted with a vendor to provide document remediation in February 2024.

Ongoing:

  • Additional documents are added to inventory as needed.
  • Newly created documents are reviewed for accessibility as requested.
  • Inventory of documents for remediation continues to be worked on in coordination with the contracted remediation vendor.

Challenges 

Website Platform Issues

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) is reliant on the state vendor who manages the colorado.gov platform to remediate accessibility issues related to the Drupal platform or that require elevated permission levels. 

Software Limitations

Moving documents between platforms such as Google and Microsoft can create accessibility challenges related to formatting and metadata. Google products converted directly to PDF before 2025 do not have a tagging structure which requires remediation. Additional software needed to test for and remediate to the technical standards in Google Workspace and Adobe requires a budget for licenses.

Third-party Integrations

Some third-party products integrated into OEDIT websites have accessibility issues we are unable to address ourselves. Alternate formats and escalation to the vendor is required.

Training on Standards

The technical standards of WCAG 2.1 and PDF/UA are difficult to understand and master. Software designed to assist with meeting standards is costly and can require hours of training to become proficient. 

Document Remediation

Identifying and addressing technical issues within the code of documents requires practice and prowess that prove challenging with staff capacity. Some accessibility issues with images, color contrast, or font size can only be addressed by recreating elements and altering documents. For some documents, that would mean altering legal documents and is prohibited. Some accessibility issues with PDFs are best addressed through the source documents, which are not always readily available.

Procurement

Vetting vendors to ensure they can meet accessibility standards for deliverables has posed challenges since testing cannot be completed until after a product is created. Enforcing contract stipulations to ensure all procured products meet accessibility standards requires extra steps and advanced knowledge of the standards.

Next Steps

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade will continue to provide training to staff on accessibility best practices for digital content. Staff will continue to set and work toward individual accessibility goals that are monitored during performance reviews. Automated website testing will be ongoing with results reviewed on a monthly basis. Manual testing of websites will be performed on an annual basis. Document review and remediation efforts are ongoing.

Formal approval

Tina Morrow, Accessible Programs Coordinator
Last updated 04/24/2025