The City of Blue Springs will be required by law to be compliant with the digital standards outlined in Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by April 24, 2026. However, more than just meeting a legal requirement, it is also the City of Blue Springs’ stated goal to foster an inclusive, and accessible environment for all its Staff and residents.
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Accessibility Statement
The City of Blue Springs is committed to ensuring that its services are accessible to all members of the public. As part of this commitment, the City strives to provide an accessible website and digital contents compatible with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, AA, and commercial screen reading software. Features of the City’s website and its digital content are created to allow individuals with vision and other impairments to understand and use the website to the same degree as someone without disabilities.
Accessibility Goals and Strategies
- Establishing a Digital Accessibility Citywide Policy
- Staff training on digital accessibility best practices
- Document review and remediation
- Converting all City templates to WCAG 2.1 Compliant
- Integrating accessibility compliance checks into our workflow and approval processes
- Using tools such as PDF Accessibility Checker and NVDA to test documents for compliance and adherence to WCAG core principles
- Purchasing of PDF remediation software
Inventory
Staff has inventoried all frequently used City templates/forms/applications and begun remediating/converting to a WCAG 2.1 standard. This includes not only everyday/frequent use items like City contracts, information forms, and applications, but also, long form reports such as the annual Capital Improvements Projects report or the Annual Budget.
Progress
| Task | Status |
|---|---|
| Creation of a Digital Accessibility Policy | COMPLETE: Staff began working on a Digital Accessibility Policy in October of 2025 with its completion and adoption shortly thereafter. This policy was made available via the City’s intranet site in January 2026 alongside training and resources for Staff. The Assistant to the City Administrator was designated as the City’s Digital Accessibility Coordinator, overseeing the City’s efforts to meet the compliance deadlines. |
| Passage of Resolution No. 31-2026 in support of the City of Blue Springs' Digital Accessibility Efforts | COMPLETE: Mayor and Council passed Resolution No. 31-2026 at the April 20, 2026 City Council Meeting in support of the City’s Digital Accessibility Efforts. This demonstrates that the City of Blue Springs is committed to ensuring that its services are accessible to all members of the public. As part of this commitment, the City strives to provide an accessible website and digital contents compatible with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, AA, and other assistive technologies. The City has made significant progress with its approach to achieving Title II compliance, including the establishment of a digital accessibility policy with staff training on best practices, the conversion of all City templates to WCAG 2.1 standards, integrating accessibility compliance checks into City processes, and document review and remediation. Training and compliance review will continue indefinitely for City Staff as it works to make sure the City’s digital content and information is accessible to as many people as possible. |
| Staff Training on WCAG Standards & Best Practices |
ONGOING: The City’s Digital Accessibility Coordinator has been assembling training and learning resources for staff to learn how to build documents with accessibility in mind. Coordinator has been conducting training sessions on topics ranging from WCAG for Social Media” to “Accessibility for Word.” The City’s Digital Accessibility Policy outlines best practices for a variety of digital mediums. The City has also encouraged staff to utilize its learning management system LinkedIn Learning, which has a variety of modules on digital accessibility. Staff that works with PDF creation have been asked to watch the “Creating Accessible PDFs” module. This will be a continued ongoing effort for staff. Many of the City’s templates and working documents were aged and in need of conversion to new Microsoft file formats to enable the accessibility checker. Instilling best practices and formatting templates to WCAG / PDF/UA standards will help to ensure that documents are built with accessibility in mind and compatible with assistive technology tools. |
| Creation of Working Groups |
COMPLETE: To prepare for document remediation, several working groups have been established to work through converting and updating document formats for WCAG standards. Several of the annual City reports have not had their formatting changed since their creation years ago, requiring total redesigns. While this has been challenging, it has been a welcomed opportunity to rethink City design/processes. |
| Website Redesign |
COMPLETE: The City entered into a contract with Revize for a website redesign in August 2025. This redesign will provide the City with a Title II compliant website that is fully compatible with assistive technology tools. Staff had included questions about digital accessibility in the interview process and noted that it was a priority for the City. The redesigned website is slated to launch in March 2026. |
| Document Remediation |
ONGOING: Documents that will be in continued use after the compliance deadline have been marked for conversion or remediation if already completed. City templates / frequently used documents have been inventoried and or converted to WCAG standards. |
Challenges
Please be advised that certain documents provided herein may originate from third-party sources. As such, we may have been unable to remediate these documents to ensure full compliance with accessibility standards. We acknowledge the limitations this may impose and are committed to working with third-party providers to improve the accessibility of their documents whenever possible.
Third-Party Vendors
The City is committed to ensuring that the documents it creates are built with accessibility in mind and held to a WCAG 2.1 standard. The City will make efforts to request that third-party vendors provide documents that are either WCAG 2.1 compliant or capable of being remediated. Unfortunately, some third-party documents may have accessibility issues that the City is unable to address itself. Alternate formats to present the content may be required.
Scanning Documents/Remediation
Staff capacity, images with font sizes, 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. Many City documents were entirely scanned in for record retention, which inhibits some remediation capabilities.
While the City’s practices with record repository does include OCR’ing documents for searchability, this does not ensure WCAG compliance. Staff has purchased PDF remediation software in anticipation of any requests for remediated documents and is establishing feedback channels to submit any questions or concerns with regard to accessibility.
Training on Standards
WCAG 2.1 PDF/UA are difficult to understand and master. Even a basic understanding of best practices for WCAG standards has required months of training in order to prepare for the compliance deadline. The City is committed to making a good-faith effort to train staff to the best of its abilities, but time and resources are factors that do limit the City’s capacity.
Next Steps
Training and Working Groups will continue indefinitely. The City’s Digital Accessibility Coordinator continues to build resources and learning documents for staff, while also continuing to participate in trainings lead by experts in the field of digital accessibility.