Library of Virginia Digital Accessibility Policy
The Library of Virginia (LVA) welcomes visitors with disabilities and is committed to making the library's digital content accessible to all users. Please share any concerns or issues with the library's accessibility compliance officer, Vanessa Anderson, vanessa.anderson@lva.virginia.gov. Please include the nature of the accessibility issue, the web address (URL) of the material with which you are having difficulty, and your contact information.
Please use the Digital Accessibility Complaint Form to report any issues experienced on the Library of Virginia websites:
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.
Accessibility Goals
The goals of the LVA's accessibility plan are:
- All new digital content created for LVA websites will meet W3C's WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance.
- All content posted prior to May 18, 2022, will be remediated to meet W3C's WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance as soon as possible.
For updates on our progress towards achieving these accessibility goals, please see the Web Accessibility Implementation webpage.
