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This guide covers the process for identifying and correcting an accessibility failure, when a content editor is requesting to publish content that doesn’t meet accessibility standards.
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This guide is for Approvers or people managing publishing requests as part of a federated publishing queue. |
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 requires agencies content creators to ensure people with disabilities have the same access to information and services as others in the community. It is a requirement for all Government government sites to meet WCAG AA guidelines.
This process will help guide you through the process for handling pages that do not meet our Accessibility standards.
Process for Accessibility failures
alert the content editor via email that the page does not meet our standards using the pre-written email template. The editor then has the option to:
update the page to meet the standards, or
proceed with the publishing. Before publishing, the content owner will need to provide the following:
an email to acknowledge that they are in breach and would still like to proceed with publishing
contact details (to be published) for any accessibility requests
accessibility disclaimer added to page
page details and exception reason added to the table below.
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This email should be sent from the digital@dpc.vic.gov.au mailbox |
Hi ______All pages submitted for Needs review (by Editors) are reviewed against the accessibility and quality checklist. Approvers can refuse to publish a page until the accessibility failure is corrected.
On this page:
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Responding to an accessibility failure in Jira
Review and respond to the content editor’s request in Jira, using the Accessibility failure template. This is found under the Canned Responses Pro section. Click on Select template then select the Accessibility failure template.
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Accessibility failure template
Hello [insert name here],
Unfortunately, the page you have submitted for review does not meet
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accessibility requirements and is unable to be published at this time.
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[Describe where the standards are not being met]
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 requires agencies to ensure people with disabilities have the same access to information and services as others in the community. It is a requirement for all
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government sites to meet WCAG AA guidelines.
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To meet the requirements and have your page published, you will need to [add guidance, e.g. “provide the contents of the PDF as a web page.”]
If you are unable to make your page
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accessible at this time and would still like to proceed with publishing, we require you to respond to this email with the following acknowledgement. A disclaimer notice will
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be placed on the page with the contact information.
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I understand that the following page does not meet WCAG AA standards and is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. I accept the responsibility for any action that may be initiated by failing to comply. I also agree to provide contact details for anybody seeking an accessible version of our information. These contact details will be published publicly on the web page, along with an
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accessibility disclaimer.
I commit to providing an
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accessible version by: [date]
Page title & link:
Reason for exception:
Contact email:
Contact phone number:
Authorised by:
Date:
If you have any questions, please
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let me know. If you or your team needs any guidance on meeting accessibility requirements, you can book in for a consultation with an SDP content team member: Book a content design or training session (for Editors and Approvers) - You can book online!
Many thanks,
[
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publishing queue approver name]
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Once the email has been sent, set the page you’re happy with the response, select Save comment:
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Then set the ticket to Waiting for customer or On hold. This ensures the customer is responsible for the SLA and must remediate the accessibility failures before it’s published.
Adding a note to the CMS page and placing it in Draft
Set the CMS page back to Draft with the following revision note . This (this will let the rest of the team publishing team know that this person has already been contacted):
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This page does not meet |
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accessibility requirements and cannot be published |
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. Please check the Service Desk customer portal or auto-generated email for further detail. |
Jira - how to action in the ticket
TBC
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Before a non-compliant page can be published, the content owner will need to email digital@dpc.vic.gov.au with the following disclaimer:
I understand that the following page does not meet WCAG AA standards and is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. I accept the responsibility for any action that may be initiated by failing to comply. I also agree to provide contact details for anybody seeking an accessible version of our information. These details will be published on the web page, along with an Accessibility disclaimer.
Page & link:
Reason for exception:
Contact email:
Contact phone number:
Authorised by:
Date:
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For non-Accessible pages, the following notice is to be placed on the page in a callout:The editor has the option to either:
update the page to meet the standards
proceed with publishing, with an accessibility failure disclaimer added to the page.
Adding and publishing an accessibility disclaimer on a page
Once the editor has acknowledged they are in breach of the accessibility requirements and has provided you with contact details, add the accessibility disclaimer to the page with call-out formatting and publish.
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The Victorian Government is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. This page may not meet our minimum WCAG AA Accessibility accessibility standards. If you are unable to read any of the content of this page, you can contact the content owners for an Accessible accessible version: Contact email: |
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The following pages do not meet WCAG AA standards. The content owners acknowledge and accept that they are in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and have requested to have their page published anyway.
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Page & CMS link
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Department
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Authority given by
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Reason
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Further action required?
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Review date
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Workplace gender auditing
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Department of Premier and Cabinet
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Margot Paxman, A/Manager, Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector
Editor: Enya Cai
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Quick publishing turn around - page needed to go live 16.07.2021
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Yes - editor has committed to creating an HMTL accessible version.
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Escalated to Emma and Jo as I haven’t received a reply from the stakeholder. MM 10.08.2021
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Panel of Providers
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Department of Premier and Cabinet
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Holly Tan, Senior Policy Advisor
Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector
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Getting captions and transcripts created for videos but the videos are needed by users as soon as possible to meet deadlines
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Yes – committed to getting their videos captioned and with transcripts
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Captions and transcripts have been included
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Aboriginal Victoria - Closing the gap tables
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Department of Premier and Cabinet
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Chase Phillips, Business Support Officer
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Needed to launch the plan, but will complete data tables this week
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Yes - committed to creating the online version
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Friday 13 August
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Housing Registrar:
1. Role of the Housing Registrar
2. Housing Registrar newsletter - June 2021
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Department of Treasury and Finance
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Paul Bowerman
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Being pushy
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Yes - committed to creating online version by 1 Dec 2021
Decisions log - where PDF/Word docs are accepted with HTML summaries
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Site/site section
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Decision
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Communicated to
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Independent Remuneration Tribunal
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PDF/Word documents going forward:
Advice documents – data table as well as PDF (if PDF required). Alternatively, we could avoid publishing the PDF and just add a data table.
Determination/Reports/Statement/Guidelines – summary of key changes or key messages in HTML format with PDF/Word document.
Consultations – full HMTL version using the publications template.
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Tracking the accessibility failure
Once a content editor has committed to a day for making their documents accessible, move their ticket from ON HOLD to WAITING FOR CUSTOMER.
Add an internal note of when the editor will create the accessible version of the document.
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Managing the Jira ticket
Change the ticket status to On Hold.
Change the Component to Accessibility issue.
Change the Date required to the date the editor has committed to fix the issue.
The day before the Date required, the Service Desk will notify the Assignee that the date has arrived. Check to see if the issue has been resolved:
if resolved, you can close the ticket
if not resolved, use the comments to request an update.
Escalating non-compliance or other issues
Talk to your manager
Your first point of call should be your digital manager. They will make a decision on behalf of your department that should be recorded in the CMS and Jira ticket.
If an exemption is granted, it should be recorded in the revisions field in the CMS so that other approvers are aware of it.
If the editor has committed to fixing the breach after publishing (due to a tight deadline, etc.), the date the breach will be fixed be should be recorded in the CMS notes and the Jira ticket.
Historical accessibility breaches
If a page with old accessibility breaches comes through, use your discretion (or refer to your manager if unsure) based on the age of the content, audience size, impact of the breach and effort required to fix.
Make a note of your decision in the CMS revision field.
Accessibility exemptions
In some instances, a separate discussion can be had with a department or agency if the content is niche or if a HTML summary covering key messages could suffice for large/complex documents.
Examples of appropriate exemptions
Plain English/year 8 readability where content is already approved, particularly for documents, media releases etc
Very large reports/documents written for a public sector audience
Templates where a user is more likely to use a word document than a html version e.g. procurement, teacher or health practitioner resources.
Examples of breaches that should be fixed
4-page fact sheets not in html
Translated content not in html
Closed captions and transcripts missing for video/audio
Missing alt text for images that aren’t descriptive, including diagrams and infographics
Any documents created for a digital and/or inclusive audience e.g. digital strategies, inclusion guides for family violence, LGBTI equality, etc.