Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Do you remember the Title II Action Guide? This was an early resource issued shortly after the passage of the ADA. It was designed to assist local and state governments develop their self-evaluation and transition plans. We are happy to announce that this valuable resource has been updated to reflect the 2010 Standards and revisions to the Title II Regulations! Join the October ADA Audio Conference session to see a "sneak preview" of the REVISED "Title II Action Guide (TTAG)" which is will now be a web-based resource. The purpose of this resource continues to be helping state and local governments understand their ADA obligations, conduct a self-evaluation, implement changes and develop a transition plan. The TTAG team at the New England ADA Center will provide information on the revised guide and show wire frames (the site is not "Live" yet) showing the content and explain how the site is intended to be used.
SpeakersSo again welcome to everyone as we kick off the 2016-2017 ADA audio conference schedule. I am pleased today to be joined by some of my colleagues from the New England ADA center. Our session title today is introducing the revised Title II action guide for self-evaluation and transition planning. With us today from the New England ADA center are Kathy Gipps, Woody Shortridge and Gabriela Sims. At this time I would like to turn it over to Kathy.
Welcome everyone to the ADA audio conference series my name is Peter Berg. I'm the project coordinator for technical assistance with the Great Lakes ADA center. The ADA audio conference series is a program of the ADA National Network. The ADA National Network is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services administration on community living, national institute on disability independent living and rehabilitation research. The ADA National Network is beginning its 26th year in existence of providing premiere information on the Americans with Disabilities Act. You may reach the regional ADA center that serves your state by calling 800-949-4232.
Thank you Peter and hello everybody, it is nice to see some familiar colleagues on the webinar and some new folks. What we are going to do today we are going to review the revised ADA Title II action guide. I will be speaking first. So I will give you some background and a bit of an overview about what the intention is how it is organized, what we are hoping to do with website. And then I will turn it over to Woody who is our really the coordinator of the development of website and Gabriela who is all things graphic and all things visual and also has been involved with the sort of look and feel of the website.
So as many of you know or most of you know way back at the end of the 20th Century all state and local governments were required to do a self-evaluation as part of the Title II regulations and state and local governments with 50 or more employees were required to do a transition plan that was required to be finished by 1993 and all the work that was outlined in the transition plan was required to be completed by 1995. So fast forward 20 years and we have new requirements that were not in the original regulations. For example, we now have design standards for recreation facilities, for play areas, for swimming pools, for accessible route to ball fields. For recreational fishing areas. We also have some other requirements in our regulations. We have policies about ticketing and theaters and we have got web access issues that didn't exist way back 20 years ago, 25 years ago. We have regulations concerning other power driven mobility devices, OPDMD like Segways. We have new auxiliary services and so even though we are not legally required to conduct a new self-evaluation and develop a new transition plan, it really makes sense at this point to do it and we are encouraged by the Department of Justice to do that.
The other thing and just to relate a little story because I was on the phone this morning with one of our ADA coordinators in the municipality in Connecticut, and we were talking about what they need to do to make sure that the recreational fields and facilities are accessible for the new standards but then he said to me, I have found the transition plan way back from 1995. And it was interesting because many of the things were actually not done and a lot of the things that were done were done incorrectly. So when I do the transition plan for the recreation and I am planning to actually go back and do all of our facilities to develop my new transition plan. So I think that's something that Title II entities need to think about also which is the work that we did way back in the early '90s didn't necessarily get all done or didn't get necessarily all done correctly. So encouragement to do a self-evaluation and develop a transition plan and that's really the intention of the website. The original Title II action guide which was last updated in 1996 was, of course, a book. It is 150 plus pages. It has about 15 pages of worksheets and forms and checklists. This Title II action guide, of course, is web-based. But we still have worksheets and forms and checklists. I don't think that any of us have figured out a way to do self-evaluation and to develop a transition plan without the paperwork. It doesn't have to be paper. You can do it on your iPad or on your computer but it still is a file that's still a document.
And we have got them downloadable files and it is -- so it is things like in terms of self-evaluation, there a checklist for checking effective communications; there is one for general nondiscrimination requirements; there is one on employment; there is one on web access; we have got sample transition plans forms so, you can pick and choose. Don't have to do the whole thing maybe, you just want to look at emergency preparedness; maybe you just want to look at your polling places ;maybe u just want to review the effective communication. You don't necessarily have to do the whole ball of wax. We also have the ADA checklist which already exists on all of the have recreation requirements and getting in to your building, the toilet rooms. So we are going to be pointing to those rather than recreating them. We already have those on a website.
Let me see here, so the other thing I want to mention actually going to want your feedback on is about four things we are going to ask for your feedback on at the end of the presentation and this one is a file that we are temporarily calling an action plan. So as most of you are aware the regulations require a transition plan. But the transition plan only deals with structural changes in facilities and this transition plan is what's the problem, what needs to be done, what's the solution, who is responsible for doing it and when is it going to be done by. But there is nothing in the regulations that really addresses what I call the soft stuff. After you do a self-evaluation there is lots of to do, update your public notice, and also not just the notice itself but really look at how you are notifying the public about your compliance with the ADA. Now that we have websites that should be putting in information on website. You might tight actually want an entire page that has the grievance procedure and you probably want to work with the web folks to make sure that the web is accessible and that your state and local government website is accessible. You may decide this is the time to buy an assistive listening device and let staff know where it is and how to use it. Maybe you decide that you need some ADA training. There is a whole list of things to do and there is no official planning process. So we have called out the action plan. But I'm going to get feedback later on whether you think that's a good name or there should be another name. The sample action plan we came up with a fictional county to give you an idea of some of the things that we would put in an action plan and the action plan form is like the transition plan form. It is what's the problem, what's the solution. Who is responsible for doing it. And when are we going to do it by.
So that's something new, it is something that many of us have felt has really been lacking in the ADA Title II compliance effort was this other planning process. So I sort of gone down the rabbit hole of forms and checklists and surveys and I want to back up and talk about website in terms of the kind of big picture. We have a fairly detailed explanation of Title II. I'm hoping that it is somewhat in plain English as you can use with legal terms. Reasonable modification of policies practices, fundamental alteration. We can't change those terms but hopefully we can explain them in a somewhat plain way. It is listed by topics and so you can choose the topic that you want to look at or you can read the entire thing, the entire explanation of Title II. And we will go over this, Woody is going to show us this. And the text is also includes a lot of examples and the examples are from the original Title II identification guide. They are from the Department of Justice's Title II technical assistance manual which is way back from the early '90s but also still very relevant. The Department of Justice has a more recent primer which has similarly helpful text and examples. Other Department of Justice's publications that we have pulled from and we have got 25 years of real life questions and scenarios and calls and e-mails that we have all gotten. We have pulled some of the examples from them. The text also has some photos interweaved because it is very text heavy. So we need to break that up a little bit visually. Then we have frequently asked questions. And we have a quiz. So this is the only interactive part of the website and the quiz if you get any of the questions wrong you will get the right answer. It is intended to be a learning experience. And there is ten questions but behind the ten questions is a question bank. So if you want to go through this there is actually a hundred questions in there and they come up randomly and it will give you the correct answer. We have got a glossary, quick access to a glossary; so if you want to find out the definition of a service animal really quickly, or what the heck OPDMD is or any of the new terms in the ADA or any of the old terms in the ADA we have got a glossary. There are resources, there are all the ADA regulations, the standards, a list of the federal agencies, how to file complaints, federal agencies publications, the ADA network publications and then there is also an overview of the ADA which I'm also going to ask you a few questions about. And let me get my next page of notes, hold on one second. Oh, dear.
And then we have direct links to the ADA network website. We have direct links to the ADA coordinator program. And we have direct links to the ADA webinars. So the intent of the website is sort of two-fold. One is really being able to learn about the ADA. You are a new ADA coordinator or a new town manager or new county commissioner and you have heard about this thing called the ADA and you really want to understand what your obligations are, maybe you have been assigned to a disability commissioner or committee. It really is intended to be very information heavy but then there is another part which what we call seven action steps. And the first step is planning for implementation, the second step is assigning an ADA coordinator, third step is public notice, the fourth step is conducting a self-evaluation, the fifth step is developing a transition plan, the sixth step is the grievance procedure and I think I got those mixed up. The sixth is developing the transition plan and the seventh is the action plan. That is overview of what we are -- what our intention is to create something that's going to be useful, we can get lots of information. That also has the forms and worksheets and with the goal that your state and local government would become compliant with the ADA and it would be a process that's going to work. It's not just going to be on the website, it is also going to be a living thing which can be changed and so we are always interested in people's feedback, what works and what doesn't work. And things that are missing, things that are incorrect and things like that.
So with that I'm going to turn it over to Woody who is going to talk about our website development process and kind of walk you through website itself. So Woody, you are on.
I'm going to jump in here real quick. Just to let folks know what is going to take place while Woody is describing the Web pages. He is going to use the feature within the Blackboard Collaborate webinar platform and take you on a web tour. This is just a demo, Woody will describe more what it is. There is no accessibility within the web platform. So Woody will be a very descriptive in providing very detailed description of the Web pages that are being displayed. For those of you that are not using assistive technology do not click on any of the links within the pages that you see. If you do, you will be lost from the presentation and what Woody is talking about will not be what you are viewing. So please do not click on anything within those pages. Once Woody is done with his detailed description of these Web pages and what it is going to look like, you will then end the web tour. And folks will be returned back in to the main webinar platform. For those of you using assistive technology the focus of your cursor will not be in the webinar room once the web tour feature is turned off. You will need to do an alt tab in order to get your focus back in to the webinar room. Just so you are aware of that once the web tour is over because once they are done, once Woody is done and Gabriela is describing the Web pages, there will be some questions that Kathy and Woody and Gabriel will and we will be using the polling within the platform. Just wanted to give you all a heads up before Woody got in to his detailed description. Go ahead.
Thank you, Peter. Yes, so I'm Woody. Around I'm in charge of the development of the site over here. I'm going to put it in right now. And we will go said this is only a demo. This is not an actual web, it is in between a wireframe and a prototype. It is interactive and you can click through it. Most of the website does not act like a real website and we do it this way so that we can first look at and research through user testing. The visual aspect and also the information architecture of it all. So we'll -- we have users walk through and the idea here is to find any issues with color, contrast, layout, the architecture, the information the hierarchy everything so that when we go to develop the actual site we are not wasting time with the iterations. The next step from here is I am going to work on a development with website that will work with the screen reader and we will do user testing with that again to make sure that the assistive technologies work all the interactions. So to begin I'm just going to give you a tour through the site and I'm going to describe it on each page. As I click through it, your screen will click through it. There is a -- but my mouse won't show on your screen. And so there is a couple of points where I will have you hover over something or scroll to see what I'm talking about and I will be sure to let you know when I get there.
All right. So this is the home page here. And it starts out with the header which runs constant throughout the site and at the top right there is a contact us button and a site map button as well as is search bar if you are trying to find specific information on the site. Below that there is the New England ADA logo as well as the institute for human design logo. And then in big print we have the title which is ADA Title II action guide for state and local government. Below that is a horizontal menu which is the main menu for the site. That is runs constant throughout each page. And there is several elements here. We have home, ADA overview and ADA Title II requirements, action steps resources and glossary. And this is where if you are able to hover over the site, if you hover over the ADA overview on the main menu bar, there is a dropdown there. So you will see introduction Title II employment, Title II public entities, Title III private entities, Title 4 telecommunications and Title V miscellaneous. Moving over one more to ADA Title II requirements still on the main menu tab here. You have a list of Title II requirements. And moving over one more there is the list of each individual action steps. So as Kathy mentioned there is step one, start implementation all the way down through step 7, create an action plan. One more over is the resources. And again you have a dropdown menu here. So that you can skip to what specific resource you would like to see and these include self-evaluation forms sample document, quiz, federal resources, ADA statute regulations and standards, federal agencies, federal ADA technical assistance materials, ADA network technical assistance material. Web courses. Audio conferences. Webinars. And finally there is the glossary as I mentioned on the main horizontal nav bar and this one doesn't have a dropdown. The glossary is just one page.
This is Peter. If I could just jump in real quick. For those who may be using assistive technology and once the site is live, for who won't be mousing over those, how will those menus be available to someone using assistive technology, a screen reader, for instance?
Depending on what their action key is, tab or whatnot, but the -- that part is not done yet. And I expect will probably make a couple of different versions of how you can go through that with the screen reader and then test it with users to figure out which one is the best. And probably use a couple of different methods.
Great. Thanks.
So below that is just a general introduction that tells you about what the site is for. So it says learn how to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities participating in a city meeting attending public school, voting, staying in emergency shelter and much more. People with disabilities and fundamental goal for the Americans with Disabilities Act state and local governments have obligations under Title II to provide people with disabilities equal opportunity to participate in all services, programs and activities. Below that introduction are three images there and these images here are not -- they are just placeholders as Kathy mentioned and, of course, since we get the code developed we will have all text for all images and whatnot. All right. So still on the home page, under the images there is two columns and on the left-hand column is a heading that says new Title II. Read and understand ADA Title II requirements to know what's important to you. And under that there is a box which lists all the Title II requirements and this is the same list from the main navigation bar. The idea here is to have it redundant on the home page because it is an important part this website.
So it has under ADA Title II requirements in this box all the different ones. If you would like to skip directly to that, to learn more about Title II. This includes ADA Title II introduction who has obligations, who is protected by the ADA general nondiscrimination requirements, integration effective communication, accessibility, program accessibility, the construction -- new construction and alterations employment, accessible website and other ICT emergency preparedness, voting, public K-12 schools, post-secondary schools, administrative requirements. Under that are four buttons and we are still in this column of new to Title II. And these four buttons take you to other places you may want to go from the home page just to make it redundant so you don't have to go through the nav bar if you are new to Title II and this is a resources, glossary, the Title II quiz and FAQs.
All right. So moving on to the second column, which is to the right of the new Title II column, is one with the heading ready to take action. Follow these action steps to become compliant with Title II of the ADA. So here again it is redundant of what is under the dropdown for action steps on the main menu. But we put it here on the home page because it is the most important aspect of the site. So under here we have buttons for each of the seven steps, Step 1 start implementation; Step 2 appoint an ADA coordinator; Step 3 provide public notice; Step 4 adopt grievance procedures; Step 5 conduct self-evaluation and accept; Step 6 develop transition plan and accept; Step 7 create action plan. And under all of those is a button for self-evaluation form and sample documents once you are done with the action plan.
Kathy I was just interrupting Woody. Sorry
Below these two columns is the footer and this runs throughout the entire website and the footer has a link to ADA National Network telephone, a link to ADA web course, audio conferences, webinars and a link to ADA coordinators or certification program. Under that there is a phone number for questions on the ADA. And the ADATA.org website and phone number for questions on the website and or an alternative e-mail contact for website. Great. So this -- that is just the home page here. And now I'm going to bring you through a little bit of the functionality and the information architecture to see how it all works.
So if you can follow me with the -- if you are using a mouse, and hover over ADA overview, I'm going to click on the ADA Overview button All right. So this takes you to the main page for ADA overview. And the idea here is that if you don't know what section from the dropdown you want, you can go to ADA overview and it has all of the sections on one page.
And this is how each page is organized. So there is a left hand navigation bar on each of these pages. And this one here has the same options from the main menu. So if you are on the ADA overview page, you can skip to whichever part you would like to see and that includes introduction, Title I employment, Title II public entities, Title III private entities, Title 4 telecommunications, Title V miscellaneous. And if you would like to try this functionality out, if you hit introduction it will skip to where the introduction is on this page.
Woody, This is Peter. Just for clarification, so on the ADA overview page all the information is contained within a single page and then what you are doing is using the in- page link to jump to that particular content matter?
Yes. So that's how we designed the entire site. So on each main menu button or category all that information is there. It is not separate pages for each of the things in the dropdown. It is actually links to an anchor in each page. And then if you are on the page, you also have a navigation, a side navigation on the left-hand side to get you to where you want to be on that page. And this is a floating navigation. So as you scroll down visually it will keep it with you and for assistive technology you will be able to jump top that menu easily wherever you are in the page.
Great. That's helpful for folks using assistive technology.
Yes. Please let me know any time I need to clarify.
I am going to jump in for a second because the other thing we thought about or the reason we thought about having it all one in page is to that somebody could actually just print that section out if they wanted it. So they will do printer friendly button that will come up and it will, you know, print out a nice document for you. So you don't have to keep switching pages to get employment public entities, private entities on each separate document.
Thanks, G.
All right. So we have gone through home, and we never go through the content. I'm not going to go through much of the content. A lot of it here is example content so that we can get a sense for the design. So we have done home. Moving to the right on the main menu bar we have gone through home, ADA overview and knew if you hover over ADA Title II requirements that same list drops down with all the different options. If you click on the button here which I just did, so your screen may change, you get to the main page just like the overview that all the different Title II requirements and you can skip to which one you want using the navigation bar on the left. So if you click on ADA Title II introduction page will shift down to where ADA Title II introduction is. And the nav bar on the left will follow you so that you can move on to whichever section you would like to see next. And again as Gabriel said, the whole page is one whole document. It is easy for printing and I think just keeping it together is helpful if you are trying to read through it on the web as opposed to continuously changing links. All right. So moving back up to the main menu, we have gone through home, ADA overview, ADA Title II requirements, and now over to action steps. If you hover over it you get the dropdown with all 7 action steps and it will allow you to go directly to an establish that you know you would like but if you don't know exactly on action steps and it will take you to the main page which has all of them and again on the left-hand side it has nav bar to take you to difference action steps within the page.
So here on the demo we have step 1 in here and if you click on step 1, on the nav bar, it will jump to step 1 plan for compliance. The action steps here have a big bar for the title. Below that there is an image. It is a placeholder. And there will be alt text for all images. And then a description for the step 1. All right. So now we have done home, ADA overview, ADA Title II requirements action steps. I am going to move over to read sources. This will bring up all the different resources there are like I said self-evaluation form sample documents, FAQs, quiz federal resources, ADA statutes, regulations and standards, Federal agencies, federal ADA technical, assistance materials, ADA network, technical assistance materials. Web courses, audio conference, and webinars.
Now I'm going to click on resources and take us all to the resources page.
It is Peter again with another question. On the resource page let's say federal resources, when someone clicks on a particular document and say go see the Title II regulations. Will that open up -- you may not have thought this through. Will that open a new browser so that the action guide will still be open in a separate browser and then a second question to that for a checklist if someone is clicking on a document of some sort will that -- again will that open separately. Will that open on the page. Will that be some sort of a fillable form on website. So I guess multiple questions.
So when you -- like the other pages the resource page, you know, it is a little trickier but like the other pages it is all one page with the nav bar on the left that will take you down to it. And you are right, there is a lot of different links here and like how to do that but instead of taking you to a poppout straight away when you hover over it, we have everything all in one page here and so, for example, if you navigate to the self-evaluation forms, here it is a list of the links. Or the forms to fill out. So instead of a direct popup, it is giving you a list to choose from. So for general nondiscrimination there you have a link for a PDF fillable, a Word file or a Word fillable and there we are giving you multiple options to use. It is really -- if people are familiar with the checklist sections from the ADA checklist site, it is going to be pretty similar to that. And that would be for like you said any of these resources that are, you know, an external link or something you download and fill out. It will be done that way. And yeah, I know it can be a problem sometimes if things are popping up if your screen is changing. So that's something that we will definitely work out once we have the site coded and can test it with the screen readers and whatnot to make sure that we don't lose kind of situational awareness here when you are clicking new links. I think and I'm -- I would be happy to get feedback on that but I think this idea of having the page with all the different downloadable or links to navigate through as opposed to directly taking there makes that a little easier.
Yes. So here the only example we have on this prototype is the self-evaluation forms and documents. But everything will be on one page. So if you want to get to the FAQs it will take you down to where that is on that page or if you want to get to the web links to web courses and audio conferences and webinars and whatnot it will take you to where that is on that page. So you can browse through those links. Does that answer your question, Peter?
Thank you. Yep.
Great. So I'm going go to the last option on the main horizontal menu bar is the glossary and this one unlike the other dropdowns is one page. There are no sections within it. I'm going to click on it now so that everyone's screen should go there. So the glossary is however set up very similar to these other pages. Even though it doesn't have the dropdown to go within. It has a nav bar within it that is the alphabet. So if you are trying to navigate through the glossary instead of having to scroll through it, you can click on a or select if you are using a tab or something, A or F or whatever you would like and the page will move to where that section of the alphabet is on the glossary and if you would like to try that out, it is functional on this prototype. For instance, if you click R, the page will scroll down to reasonable accommodation. Or if you click H, it will scroll to historic properties. All right. And now that I have gone through the bulk of the information layout you and the content layout, I think it might make more sense for everyone if we go back to the home page. I'm going to do that right now by clicking the horizontal nav bar. That's where we are now. So now these links on the home page might make more sense where they are taking you. Like I said in the beginning there is two columns here under the introduction and under the pictures there is two columns. One for new to Title II and one for ready to take in action and under the new for Title II there is the ADA Title II requirements which mirrors exactly what you can get to from the main menu bar. And it has a list within there. So that you can go to whichever section you are interested in. If you are interested in employment you can click employment and it will take you to where that section is under the Title II requirements page. And under the Title II requirements box still within the new Title II column, there is the four links, resources that will take you to the main resources page that we went to. Within that you can navigate to where you would like to go. Glossary, the page that we just talked about. The Title II quiz which would take you specifically to that section in the resources page. And FAQs which would take you specifically to that section in the resources page and we picked these buttons here because we felt like coming to a home page this is a first time user would -- these are their goals here whereas people that know, will be probably using the main menu for navigation. And then the column to the right, the second column, just to go over this now because I think it make might more sense where these links go, ready to take action page column, follow these action steps and become compliant with Title II. This is the same content, same pages from the action steps link on the main menu bar. Here you can navigate which step you would like. And following all the steps. There you have a button for the self-evaluation forms and sample documents once you are done and I'll go ahead and click bottom so you can see how everything navigates back. Now we are back --
Sorry. Keep searching back between using the term link and button those interchangeably?And --
That's a great question. I am not.
A button don't act like a link. For navigational purposes someone using a -- links mode and arrow up and down whereas a button doesn't act the same way.
Okay. I guess I was using link as a verb here. As in links to. But yes, these are buttons here.
Thanks for the clarification.
You are right. Sorry that was confusing. There are links on website but that's like what we were talking more about the resources like if we are linking you to a document and that sort of thing. But you are right. For the navigation we are talking about buttons here. And -
Thanks for the clarification.
That's a good question. Where was I? Oh, yeah. So I'm going to click on just the final example I'm going to click on the self-evaluation forms button. And that takes us back to exactly where we were before on the resources page. Specifically in that section where you can download or link or click on links for sample documents. And self-evaluation forms. There is one more functionality I would like to go through and then I'm basically done. Here I'm going to take you to the Title II requirements page. And we just have a demo here of what one section this page could look like. And this is the ADA Title II introduction. So under this section there is -- I'm sorry. Sorry. I was backwards here. So we are actually looking at thewho has obligations section. If you scroll down, if you are -- if you are using a mouse, you need to scroll down.
Okay.
Great. So here we have a header who has obligations under Title II. There is a picture justified to the left which again is just placeholder. And will be -- have alt text and then the description for that question. So Title II applies to state and local governments including states executive agencies, courts, legislatures, towns, cities, countries, school districts, universities, community colleges, water districts, special purpose districts, regional transit authorities, other state and local governments. Instrumented and Amtrak. Then after the description in parenthesis and in blue and underlined it says Title II regulations and that gives the regulation number. Now the functionality here is if you are interested in the actual regulations, it can hover over this and there will be a popup, not a popup as in a new screen but overlay that says and you can try this here if you are using a mouse. That gives the actual regulations, public entity means any state or local government, any department agency, special purpose district or other instrumental of the state or states or local government and the national railroad passenger corporation and any convener authority as defined in section 103 (8) of the rail passenger act. For each of these Title II requirements section it will be a general explanation and then they will be the regulation number which you can hover over to get a more detailed account of what that actually means and --
This is Peter again. To get clarification, you are talking -- there will be a section and then the specific Title II regulations 35.104 the definition section or 35.105, the general requirements. That's what you are saying. Someone can access that additional information that gives you the actual regulatory language is that correct?
Exactly. So that way it is easy to read and understand but if you want to go that extra step and you need more details and see the actual regulations, you can access that at the end of each section. And that will work with the assistive technology, too. That functionality I haven't figured out how to develop it yet but definitely will.
There is also in these sections for the ADA Title II requirements, if you are using a mouse, if you scroll all the way down, will be examples here and there and the examples visually are in a grayed out box. And basically just signifying that it is a different type of element here. And we will do that with assistive technology and signify this is an example. But yeah. So I think I have covered the functionality that we have set for this demo as much as we have it. The demo was made for user testing to look at the visual design, stuff like contrast, how it is going to do with the screen magnifier, and really the information architecture, see the navigation style and like the -- does the hierarchy and categories make sense and are people able to find what they are looking for. And we are doing that testing this week and then I'm going to start on the big project which is actually developing the code and writing website and making it accessible and going back and doing more testing with assistive technology or more iterations but the idea is before we do that let's start off with something that is easy to navigate and makes sense visually. That's about it. I guess -- I'm going to take you back in to the main room and Peter you might want to remind about --
Thanks. This is Peter again of for those you that are using assistive technology as Woody ends the web tour, it is likely your focus will not be back in the webinar room. So you will need to use the function alt tab to get the -- your cursor function back in to the webinar room. Kathy before we get to the next portion and the polling we had someone submit a question twice and thought you good point to address it here and the person is basically asking if is there a single website where one can get all this information. And I think it came in first when you were doing your general overview and you can address this but I think the general answer, the point is that the reason why you are spending time and energy and, you know, making this an online one stop resource for, you know, self-evaluation and transition planning.
Yeah, I mean that is the exact intent of the website is to have all the information sort of in one place all the information that Title II entities need. If people feel we haven't accomplished that that is sort of what is missing.
Follow-up to that, there are pieces of this information out there but is there not a single location. Once this is up and running this is the resource where you have all that comprehensive information in a single location.
That's the intent. Absolutely.
You can go ahead with your next step if it is polling --
Yes, it is polling. You want to tell us about how to poll and then I will actually go through the questions.
For those of you using assistive technology I think we have four questions coming up here. So for assistive technology there are going to be multiple options, multiple answers, AB or C. Some of them may be only be A or B. If your choice is A you could do control 1. B is control 2. C will be control 3. So those of you using assistive technology, those features are built in to the platform. Control 1 is A, control C is 3. Control B is 2.
Going to the next slide. Thanks very much. So Woody went to what we have up on the screen and we do have alt text. So hopefully people who are using assistive technology got some of that. On the left is the homepage of what Woody went through and it has -- and on the right is another design basically. And the differences between those two designs is the one on the left has all of the topics that we are addressing in the Title II requirements on the home page. So the introduction is obligations and it is a long list like 12 different items that are on the Web page. Then on the right is a different design and it is a little bit simpler and it has a button that says ADA Title II requirements but it doesn't list topics. Then you would get right to the requirements and have all the topics on the left side. And the reason we drafts two pages I think it is part because we have been looking at the darn thing for so long that we need feedback from other people. Is it helpful to all those topics listed on home page or does it seem too busy and if we should have one button that says ADA Title II requirements? So that's the big difference. So, option A is the one on of the left is the which has all of the topics listed on home page after ADA Title II requirements and option B is the one that just has a button that says ADA Title II requirements and then takes -- you have to go down one level to get to that. And then option C is you have no opinion. Which is fine. Not everyone has to have an opinion. So we are going to do polling.
The polling for those of you looking within the webinar room the polling feature is the last option above the participant box. So you can access your -- A, B and C choices.
Okay. Great. I am seeing a few coming in. We are going to keep going until it stops. We have over a hundred participants and we would love as many people to possible to vote. If you are in a room with other people maybe you can have quick discussion and --
Just as a discussion note, Woody do you know approximately what the difference would be in terms of length, the number of links on each home page that you are having folks select from?
Yes. And this question may apply more to someone that is using assistive technology because it is -- listing all the ADA Title II requirements makes it pretty heavy in terms of like a list of clickable items to wade through on the home page. So it would be it is a difference of 16.
The total would be about 40? Or 30? Where you have the --
Everything total? Not including the main bar and looking at home page and everything there it is 17, 18, 19, 2 -- yeah. 28 total. 16 of them are the ADA Title II requirements. So the option B simpler one would get rid of 16 and instead you would go to -- straight to the Title II requirements page where you can then navigate to which section of the requirements you would like to visit.
28 is not a terribly large amount. You look at some of our -- not to pick on any particular federal agency but you go to some federal agency websites and with home pages that have literally hundreds of links on them and that's where it becomes unmanageable.
I think we are good with the poll. Do you want to give us the results? So we have -- 29% -- so it is percentage of the total participants. 29% voted for A and 24% voted for B and 45% did not vote. It is not a C. So it sounds like not that far apart but there is a lead on A. So that's really helpful. We are also doing in-person user testing. So that's going to be helpful to help us make a decision. Good. Thank you very much. Can we go on to the next poll? Okay. So there is a fairly brief explanation of each of the titles. It is not a whole lot. Title I there is three sentences that explains what it is. For Title II, I am not concerned about because the whole page is on Title II.There is something on public transportation. So these are -- I would say modest paragraphs of maybe three or four sentences that explain the ADA overview. We also have in the resources section we have links to the regulations. So people can get there. But my question for you all is do you think there should be a longer explanation of the other titles of -- Title I, 3, 4 or 5 or do you think this brief description is sufficient since the site is A,so text heavy as it is or B, it is really focused on Title II and then 3 if you did want to get the regulations for Title III or the transportation section or whatever, you could find that under the resources. So that's the question A is yes. I think it should be longer. The other explanation of the other title should be longer. B is no. I don't think it should be. I think it should stay the way it is and I guess if you don't vote we are going to take that as a go carry it away or you are falling asleep. I don't know exactly what but that's okay. You don't have to vote. So I see things coming in. The green check mark is yes, and the black -- I'm sorry, the red X is the no and nos are -- is ahead by a lot.
Control 1 is yes, and control 2 no.
Yeah. Well, this one is really clear. It is really, really helpful. People are still rolling in. It is 57 to 7 on the keep it as it is. So yes, you want to get information about some other title like Title III forward to the regs.
Okay. Peter that's good. You want to show the results? Okay we have got 56% said keep it as it is. 6% said want longer and 36 percent did not vote.
That's the opposite. Oh, yeah, you are right.
Thanks Peter. Let's move on and we have two more questions and we are going to open it up for you all to ask questions. We did not include other disability rights laws. For example, the Air Carrier Access Act, Fair Housing Act and special education law in part because of this issue of there is so much information on it. But, you know, it was a discussion here in the office. Should we include description should we include in the resources other disability rights law. We would have a section that would have few sentences on laws and regulations and it would have the federal agency that kind of basic information or should we just lead as it is. So this quiz is actually backwards from the other one. So you have to to put on your cognitive hat. So this is yes, means we think you should include other disability rights laws and no, I guess it is not that -- no means no don't include disability rights laws. And no vote means -- I mean not voting means whatever it means.
Control 1 for yes, information on other laws, control 2 no.
This is great. Still voting. Peter we have reach the critical mass. I think it is pretty clear that people do want us to include information on other disabilities rights laws. That's fine. It will be a link that will take you to it. It is not going to be that hard to put together. Think the Department of Justice has general guidance and just need to update their links. Thank you everyone very much. We have two more or one more. I can't remember. Two more questions for you. So this thing about the -- what I call temporarily the action plan, preferences for that name, that should be given to kind of that last plan after you do a self-evaluation for implementing those changes. A is action plan and B let's call it work plan and C is anything else you think it should be and please type your suggestions in to the chat box for a different name. Afterwards that will give us an opportunity to look over any other suggestions you have. Instructions on voting.
Absolutely. Our options again?
Options are A, B and C. A is the action plan. Like that name. B is no let's use work plan. And C is I have got another suggestion and if you have another suggestion please type in to the chat box.
Control 1 for A and control 2 for B, control 3 for C, 3. And also you can provide feedback if you provide it in the evaluation following the session, we can certainly -- we will send that information along to our colleagues at the New England ADA center. If you think of something afterwards when you are doing your evaluation after the session you can include that information in there.
This is great. They are still rolling in but we have a majority. I am going to be interested to see what suggestions people have. I see that four people at least voted for C. Okay. Good. We have another critical mass. You want to give us our results. We had 52% like the term action plan. Only 1% voting for work plan and then 3% have other suggestions which I will look at and 41% didn't vote. That's really helpful. Do we have another one? So that's the end of the questions we have for you. And now I think we are opening it up Peter correct for questions and what not from the audience.
That is correct. I am going to have the Operator come back with us and give instructions for telephone participants. For those of you in the webinar room you can submit your questions directly in to the chat area. If you -- you will not see your question when it is submitted but it is viewable by the moderators and presenters assistive technology users control M puts your focus in to the chat area or you can click on the chat area and enter your question. Instructions for telephone participants.
Ladies and gentlemen if you is a question or comment at this time please press the * and then 1 on touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Once again, if you have any questions please press * and 1.
Kathy while we are waiting to see if we get any questions we have had some questions submitted throughout the question. First one, and this is a Woody question What is the time frame for implementing this website, rolling out the site.
Woody and I are looking at each other and I said a month. I would like to think first of the year.
I think the first of the year.
Yeah, Gabriella
We that's what we are aiming for, by the time we do the user texting this week and work on the additional feedback and then we start to program it and bring in users probably again two rounds and then launch it.
Yeah, I think that's -- I like that 2017.
Yes.
Peter -
Another question. Participant wants to know if they will able to add a link from their website to the action guide?
Yeah. You can create your own button. You can do whatever you want and it will link directly to website.
Yeah. The pages the way they are set up consider it is a lot of content but there is sections that you jump to, those will have distinct URLs. So you can -- link somebody from your site directly to what section you are trying to show. It will be a number sign and some other thing additional to the HTML. Yes, you should be able to link to wherever you like on the site.
Okay. Excellent. And there is a question from -- asking if this will be shared with other ADA centers and I think the answer to that is absolutely yes, and a link to the action guide once completed from the ADA National Network site.
Yes.
This one, I don't know if is there is enough detail. Checklist be more comprehensive.
I don't know what that question is. You want to e-mail me directly kgipps@New EnglandADA.org, we can chat about that.
Yep. If you are in the webinar room you can add additional information to that question. I am glad we got a lot of questions about website. How you are going to ensure that website is compatible with all types of browsers other than applications, screen readers and assistive technology.
That's really what we do here at the institute human centered design and we have Android tablets, Apple iPads different types of PCs and different browsers and I personally, you know, I will try them out and I will even try them out with screen readers and stuff but I'm not an expert in that by any means. So at that point when I am curious in functionality with assistive technology that's when we bring in user experts that really know the ins and outs of that and will go through the site and if there is any issues then they revert back to looking at the code and fixing it there. But Gabriella might be able to speak more to that but we are pretty well experienced with developing --
Yeah. Just another question along those lines someone wanting to know if there will be a beta site where people can come in and test it and provide you with some feedback.
I was just going to say if you would like to e-mail us so we have your e-mail addresses and your information, we can reach out to when we at a phase where it would be helpful to get input. User testing is done right on site so we can see what's going on. It becomes crystal clear to us where fumbling around or somebody might lose track or not land on the right page or might lose understanding of the site. We sort of document all that videotape and take notes and after we do all of the sort of robust testing ourselves we use a lot of tools to do the testing so if we think that there might be a particular problem we will bring folks in just to look at that particular problem and sort of look at other issues that we've come across. But, you know, we would be happy to have, you know, your name and be able to reach out to if we need to if you are interested in that.
Yeah, if you are remote we can certainly consider the testing that you are to do like Gabriela said in-house, I can look in doing a password protected beta site and get it out to people who are interested in giving us feedback.
The person who asked the question is in Hawaii.
Or maybe better yet the office should go out to Hawaii. On location.
Do we have more questions?
We do. Come up with a final name for website?
Well, the name is the ADA Title II action guide for state and local government.
I can give you --
And that's the name of the original. So this is the name of the current.
Okay.
I was going to -- Kathy what did we register Title II action guide --
It will be ADA.guide.org.
It is --
What was the URL again? ADA.--
It doesn't exist yet.
Okay.
Woody is shaking his head no. I want to make sure we get to as many questions.
Person wants to know if the checklist on this website will be more comprehensive than the checklist currently available on ADA checklist.org.
I guess I would have to know by what you mean by more comprehensive. I thought that other one was pretty comprehensive and perhaps the person means we don't have every aspect of the ADA standards. If that's what the person needs. But e-mail me what you mean and your feedback and what you think might be missing and things like that. And this is a good time.
Going back to that question for the URLs, the ones we have registered now we might have more once we go live or ADAactionguide.com and ADAactionguide.org.
Any category of case law or other legal information affecting Title II entities on website.
That would be great. One of the nice things about having a website we can have features, that is not in the planning now I should say and we would have to look in to what that would mean to get that information but certainly we are open to your suggestions. So that's a good suggestion but no, the answer is -- not planning on doing it at this point.
And Dimitrius(OPERATOR), do we have anyone on the telephone?
No questions on the line.
Very good. We have plenty of questions to keep going. Someone wants to know about information regarding information on how to make websites accessible and resources on that topic.
We are certainly going to have -- we are certainly going to have the -- there will be a checklist on it. There will be something in the Title II. I don't know that it is going to be under the hood. But we can certainly add something, you know, we can add some more information to the resources section on web accessibility which would take you to exterior sites. That's another good idea because really it is a hot -- it is a current issue and we need to be providing people with resources to do it. Yeah. So thank you.
Very good. We are going to have -- Kathy and Gabriela you mentioned e-mail for folks who wanted to get in involved with the beta testing. Could you speak those again and we will have Claudia put those in the chat area.
Those are going to go to Woody.
That would go to me. And I kind of like that idea, if -- I mean we will have to talk about it but I would be happy to do a password protected beta that I can get out to a couple of people in Hawaii. My e-mail is wshortridge@icdesign.org. Wshortridge@ihcdesign.org.
Group effort there and so that is for folks that are interested in possibly participating in a beta testing of the website and Kathy, if you want to give your e-mail for that individual that had questions about the checklist.
Kgips@newEnglandada.org.
We have time for another question or two. This one is a more technical assistance question. So individuals asking please discuss the relationship between safe harbor and the recreational elements in the 2010 standards.
Sure. Absolutely. So --
Would it be covered problematic access obligations.
Yeah, think that's the important thing and that's a big reason for the self-evaluation and transition plan because we now have standards for recreation and the safe harbor requirement is that the Department of -- when the Department of Justice came out with completely updated ADA standards in 2010 they said okay, if you are in compliance with the 1991 standards we are not going to make you kind of go forward and change everything that's now required in the 2010. So, for example, if you your light switches are FD54 that's mine. We want them at 48. You only have to do that when you are altering them but you don't have to do that just to do the Safe Harbor standards. The same is true with toilet rooms. We have got this new stuff like the recreation standards and those do not get safe harbor status. You need to at this point take those recreational standards and do a program accessibility analysis using those new standards. So swimming pools, play areas, golf courses all of the things that are in the recreation section do not get safe harbor status. We need to be looking at those facility currently and using the standards to make them accessible to make sure that people have equal access to those activities and programs.
Thanks. I think like you said early on, while -- there isn't still the regulatory requirement just from a common sense it makes sense to do self-evaluation in a transition plan for many reasons. It demonstrates to the disability community that the state and local government entity is serious about the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community living and when you talk to state and local government people how do you possibly begin to defend yourself against the complaint of the Justice Department picking up the phone or sending a letter and saying you are out of compliance if you don't know if you have any barriers or where there may be programmatic architectural issues. So one last comment that was submitted in just a thank you from one of our regular participants. Cory up in Minnesota said thank you for the presentation today. We received a lot of questions on the topic here and I was glad to see that. So again from us here at the Coordinate ADA audio conference and on behalf the national network we want to thank our colleagues from the New England ADA center for spending the last 90 minutes with us and the preparation that you did in advance to put together this session. It proved beneficial for you in what you are doing and designing this website and getting feedback from the participants and hopefully for those of you that participated today you have some additional insight information about the action guide and hopefully you are looking forward to this resource being made available.
Yeah. I want to pop in and say thank you everyone for your attention and feedback. It has been really good for us to get that. So thanks and thank you to the Great Lakes for organizing us and hosting us.
Absolutely. A pleasure. And thanks to all of you the participants, you are the reason why we do this on a monthly basis, why the ADA audio conference program is a longest running educational program offered by the national network. So thank you for participating. Our as a reminder today's session will be archived and audio archive will be available on the ADA-audio.org website within 24 hours. Within three weeks we will have an edited transcript available on website. You can go back and access that or your colleagues weren't able to participate they can access the archive. The next session in the ADA audio conference series is going to take place on November the 15th. We do not have a topic. And title ready to announce to you today. It will be up on the ADA-audio.org website very soon. So stay tuned to that website so you will be able to register for that session and for those of you that are past participants, an e-mail message will be sent out to you letting you know when the registration opens for that future session and what exactly that session is. If you have questions about the ADA audio series can contact us at 877-232-1990. Once again thank you to all our participants today. Thanks to colleagues from the New England ADA center and thank you for joining and good day.