Digital Accessibility Policy

Accessibility Commitment

The Library of Virginia is committed to making all of its digital content accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998.

Accessibility Guidelines

Through its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) promotes a high degree of web access for people with disabilities. In coordination with organizations around the world, WAI pursues web accessibility through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development. To help support the WAI, this site follows the W3C guidelines for web accessibility.

At a minimum, LVA's digital content meets Section 508 and at least Level A Conformance to WCAG 1.0. On January 18, 2017, the U.S. Access Board published a final rule as the new standard for website accessibility. The rule requires adherence to the new accessibility standards twelve months from its date of publication. LVA is working towards WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance.

Disability Categories

W3C identifies five main categories of disabilities that may cause users to it find it difficult to access digital content:

Name	Description
Auditory	These may range from mild to severe hearing impairments in one or both ears.
Cognitive, learning, and neurological	These may include autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, memory impairments, etc.
Physical	These may include arthritis, reduced dexterity, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, etc.
Speech	These may include apraxia of speech, stuttering, muteness, etc.
Visual	These may include color-blindness and low-vision or substantial, uncorrectable loss of vision in both eyes.

Accessibility Barriers

The following are common barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing content on websites (for additional accessibility barriers, see Diverse Abilities and Barriers from W3C):

• Images missing alternative text for vision-impaired users
• Content that must be navigated with a mouse and does not support full keyboard navigation
• Text or images with insufficient contrast between foreground and background colors
• Uncaptioned or inaccurately captioned videos
• Inaccessible documents
• Inconsistent, unpredictable, and overly complicated site and page navigation
• Websites that only offer contact via phone

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has compiled a useful collection of information about how to address these and other barriers, see VDOE Accessibility Tools & Resources.

Recite Me Toolbar

Online visitors are now able to access a wide range of accessibility and language support tools to customize their digital experience using Recite Me, a cloud-based assistive technology. The new accessibility toolbar offers many customizations for users viewing the Library of Virginia website who may have disabilities, visual impairments, or learning difficulties, or who speak a different language. 

The toolbar offers translation to over 100 languages with 65 Text to Speech (TTS) voices for the 14 million people in the U.S. who have visual impairment. It also offers translation of PDFs and webpages, ensuring inclusive access to digital content across formats. 

Reading aids include a ruler, screen mask, magnifier, page summarizer and a dictionary to assist those with learning differences or limited literacy. Styling and customization options such as a Dyslexia-friendly font will assist those with neurodivergence.

To explore the Recite Me toolbar, click the blue universal access symbol launch button on the lower left of the screen on any new Library of Virginia webpage. 

Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates

Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) are documents that evaluate how accessible a particular information and communication technology (ICT) is according to the federal Section 508 Standards. The Library licenses products and other software from third-party vendors that is made accessible via Library of Virginia web sites, including Find It Virginia.

View the chart of Accessibility Statements and VPATs from products or software used on Library of Virginia websites.

LVA Digital Accessibility Complaint Form