Digital accessibility progress report
Last updated: March 28, 2025
Executive Summary
Denver Water has developed a comprehensive compliance plan to adhere to the new accessibility regulations. We have conducted an audit of our current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to assess conformance levels and identified the necessary efforts to address many issues. Our policies and procedures now incorporate accessibility criteria into procurement, development, maintenance and remediation processes. We have established systems for monitoring and continuous improvement, which include regular reporting and audits. Additionally, we will implement training and awareness programs for all stakeholders to ensure widespread understanding and adherence to these accessibility standards.
Conformance Overview
Much of Denver Water’s ICT conforms with the state’s Office of Information Technology rules, though some content still needs testing and resolution. We have developed a plan to continuously update our sites’ accessibility content and will report our progress quarterly.
Accessibility Status
A project plan was created to implement and improve accessibility. All ICT has undergone an initial assessment and many remediations have been completed. We have developed and trained staff on procedures outlining specific steps to meet accessibility standards in procurement, development, maintenance and remediation.
We are continuing to address known accessibility issues on denverwater.org and are verifying potential ones. We have some website content, specifically PDFs, that are not fully accessible. Based on priority, these PDFs will be converted to web pages or remediated to the best extent possible.
Testing and Evaluation
Several applications are automatically crawled to generate reports with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) A, AA and AAA compliance scores, while others undergo manual testing using accessibility tools. We have established an automated process for annual reviews and remediation.
Level Access, a company focused on digital accessibility, started its manual testing of denverwater.org components on March 20, 2025. We expect to get the results in April.
Training and Awareness
Stakeholders have been provided with change management communications. The entire organization will receive a communication outlying the importance of digital accessibility in early Q2 of 2025.
A comprehensive training plan is being developed for employees who contribute content to denverwater.org and the organization’s intranet site on their responsibilities and how to make content digitally accessible. Training is expected to role out later in Q2 of 2025.
Denver Water is also committed to reviewing policies and procedures on a regular basis.
