Digital Accessibility Plan

1. Introduction

Applewood Sanitation District (“District”) is committed to accessibility and strives to ensure its services are accessible to all persons, including those with disabilities. The District has a plan to prioritize, evaluate, remediate, and continuously improve digital touchpoints within our system and programs (“Plan”).

Our goal is to provide universal access to our website that meets the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) accessibility technical standards by following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA or higher. This is an ongoing process. This includes the intent of providing enterprise standard configurations for technologies which provide service to those with disabilities, in accordance with the technical standards provided by HB 21-1110 and Senate Bill 23-244.

2. Overview of Compliance Efforts

The District is committed to providing equitable access of information technology to all Coloradans. The District has made great progress, including taking steps to identify accessibility barriers, remediate issues, and implement a plan to meet and sustain ADA compliance throughout their website.

(a) Manual Testing and Evaluation

The District hired Pat Lombardi Design to assist with accessibility auditing, checking conformance and assisting with remediation. The District regularly scans its website to ensure ongoing compliance, and makes timely changes to any inaccessible changes, if any are found.

The audit results provided October 14, 2025, reported the website is 100% compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA conformance, excluding any archived documents.

(b) Remediation

Upon review of audit results our accessibility officer began taking the following steps to address and protect against any potential issues:

  • Reviewed audit results and identified documents to determine issues and resolve accessibility problems.
  • Attended accessibility training sessions.

3. Web Accessibility Statement

The Applewood Sanitation District (“District”) is fully committed to providing accessible channels of communication to all members of the public. As part of this commitment, the District’s website is compatible with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). All features of this website are coded to allow individuals with vision and other impairments to understand and use the website to the same degree as someone without disabilities.

If you need any special assistance or accommodations, please contact us: asd@applewoodsan.org or (303) 232-6883

Compliance Procedures

The District regularly scans its website to ensure ongoing compliance and makes changes to any inaccessible material.

Report an Accessibility Issue

The District is committed to your ability to access all content. If the format of any material on this website interferes with your ability to access information, please report the accessibility issue or submit a request for accommodation or modification via email: asd@applewoodsan.org or submit the following [link to contact form]. The District is committed to timely responding to all reports and requests within three business days.

Linked Documents and Third Parties

Please note that this site may link out to third-party websites, such as NexBillPay, that may not have accessible content. This site may also include documents provided by third parties. While the District cannot control the accessibility of content provided by third parties, the District is happy to assist any member of the public with reading and accessing content on the District’s site.

4. Exclusions

The following digital materials are not subject to this Plan:

  • Archived digital files such as historical documents, images, audio, maps, etc.
  • Working drafts of documents from several years prior, such as budget and audit documents.
  • Non-District platforms.
5. Roles and Responsibilities
  • The Compliance Officer has the following responsibilities:

(a) Monitor and stay current with WCAG updates, Colorado OIT updates, and any new rules/laws that pertain to accessibility compliance.

(b) Establish and oversee grievance procedure.

(c)  Coordinate district’s compliance with this policy.

(d) Respond to user inquiries related to web accessibility.

(e) Perform monthly automated scans of district’s website and remediate as necessary.

(f) Attend accessibility training and stay current on latest trends.

  • Authors of documents intended for sharing on district website are required to:

(a) Comply with this policy.

(b) Make every effort to create accessible documents.

6. Priorities and Steps for Compliance

The District has a plan to prioritize, evaluate, remediate and continuously improve every digital touchpoint.

Prioritize.  The District has taken steps to prioritize ensuring that the following documents fully comply with this Policy:

(a) Legal requirements – documents that legally must be posted or be available online (example budget documents, board meeting agendas, call for nominations, self-nomination and acceptance forms, annual reports and other statutorily required documents.)

(b) Page content and structure.

(c) Frequently accessed documents.

(d) All other documents, including PDFs.

Document Remediation.  The District has implemented the following steps to ensure that any potential accessibility issues are discovered and remediated as quickly as possible:

(a) All document uploads to website will be checked for compliance prior to loading on website.

(b) Inaccessible documents will be reviewed to determine if the document can be remediated in-house, or if it is too complex and will need to be contracted out for remediation.

Checks and Balances for Creating Accessible Content.  When creating anything for digital content whether it originated in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc., the District’s agents and representatives must keep accessibility in mind. This includes:

  • Color: Check color contrast to meet the current WCAG standards.
  • Alt text: Use alt text for all photos, images, etc. Do not create images of text. For an image that is purely decorative, mark it as such with alt text “”.
  • Headings: Use logical heading structure (h1, h2, h3, etc.). Use the built-in style formatting tools in the program.
  • Links: When adding/creating hyperlinks, avoid link text such as “click here,” instead use language that states the purpose of the link.
  • No flickering, blinking or flashing content is allowed.
  • Title: Include document title.
  • Fonts: Use standard sans-serif fonts – ornate fonts are hard to read.
  • Tables: Use simple structure with defined header rows. Do not have blank cells in a table. Add alt text to a table.

All digital content will be checked for accessibility using the following tools:

  • Adobe Acrobat – Convert all documents to PDF format using Adobe Acrobat. Perform necessary remediation within Adobe Acrobat.

Website Accessibility.  The District will undertake the following steps to regularly check for any potential accessibility issues:

  • Run monthly automated accessibility scans of website and save in files.
  • Run accessibility scan on all documents before loading to website.

Procurement of Digital Services.  The District will ensure procurement of all future digital services includes accessibility requirement that adhere to the latest WCAG guidelines. New vendors must provide an accessibility statement and sign a vendor accessibility agreement.

Digital Accessiblity Plan as pdf.