Falmouth Public Schools Website Accessibility Information
In the spirit of Falmouth Public Schools District's Harassment and Discrimination Prevention (File: AC) and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Handicap (File: ACE) policies, the District seeks to understand and respect the unique needs of our students and community. We are committed to making our information accessible to visitors with disabilities and are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so will conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
As of June 30, 2017, the District officially switched to a new website vendor and since then has been working to transition content toward bringing our website into compliance. In moving to the new webhosting platform, the District chose a vendor that offered a product that was designed and developed in accordance with the internationally recognized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA, as well as the Section 508 standards. As part of our transition, the District is in the process of arranging an audit of our website by an independent party who will identify areas of concern and provide the District with a roadmap toward improvement.
Moving forward, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 guidelines will apply to all new, updated, and existing web content on www.falmouth.k12.ma.us, including our teacher sites. Accessibility training will be incorporated into web publishing professional development for all contributors of new website content. Additionally, frequent ongoing monitoring will be accomplished through scanning tools, and all non-compliant elements corrected within 21 days or the content in question will be removed. We anticipate District web content will fully meet WCAG 2.0, Level AA conformance by August 31, 2019.
The entire District website will be reviewed annually and these reviews will be the responsibility of the Technology Department.
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Some of the documents on the District's website exist in portable document format (PDF). In order to improve viewing of these files for all, we are in the process of identifying and prioritizing PDF files as part of an overall strategy to bring us into full compliance. Part of this work will be to ensure that all new PDF files will be accessible through employee training. Legacy files will either be remediated or removed. In some cases, PDF files that are too complex to remediate and/or the original documents are no longer available, the District will archive them, and in doing so provide notice to anyone with a disability needing access to these files of an option to request them in an alternate format.