We incorporate website accessibility standards into the design and maintenance of our website to ensure accessibility for all people regardless of ability or method of access.

What are we doing with accessibility?

To help us make our website a positive place for everyone, we've been using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities, and user-friendly for everyone. The guidelines have three levels of accessibility (A, AA and AAA) and we’ve chosen Level AA as the target for our website.

How are we doing with accessibility?

We've worked hard on our website and believe we've achieved our goal of Level AA accessibility. We monitor the website regularly to maintain this goal. If you do find any problems, please contact us at webmaster@greenbeltmd.gov with the subject line: Website Accessibility.

Where can you get additional accessibility help?

Most popular browsers and plug-ins contain built-in accessibility tools and features. For more information, please visit the accessibility information pages for these tools:

• Google Accessibility for Chrome Browser
• Microsoft Accessibility for Internet Explorer Browser
• Accessibility Information for the Firefox Browser
• Accessibility Information for Adobe PDF Reader

In addition, we support assistive screen reader technology from JAWS, NVDA and Apple VoiceOver.

Do you want more information on accessibility?

If you want to learn more about website accessibility, here is a short primer to get you up to speed.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 applies to State and local government entities and protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability in services, programs and activities regardless of whether these entities receive Federal financial assistance. The Department of Justice (DoJ)’s Civil Rights division is responsible for ensuring legal compliance with the ADA.

The DoJ has not officially adopted regulations for website accessibility, but they currently use WCAG 2.0 Level AA as the default accessibility standard. The WCAG standards provide guidance for ensuring that websites comply with ADA accessibility standards.

Section 508

The Section 508 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 was adopted in 2001 and includes technical standards that cover the accessibility of web content.

Section 508 does not apply to local government or private websites unless they are receiving federal funds or are under contract with a federal agency, but many local governments have adopted Section 508 for their accessibility standard. There is currently a pending proposal for Section 508 standards to conform to WCAG 2.0 standards.