Everyone in the Office of Information and Technology and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a role to play in creating digital content that everyone can use. Accessible content benefits everyone — with or without disabilities.
Start with this quick start guide to address common accessibility issues:
- Use available accessibility tools
- Provide document properties.
- Using color correctly and ensuring appropriate contrast
- Ensure documents are structured properly
- Minimize the use of abbreviations.
- Provide alternative text for images and non-text elements.
- Multimedia files must have transcripts, captions and in some cases descriptive audio.
- Writing content that can easily be understood.
Responsibility for accessibility
The original creator of content, whether a VA employee or contractor, is individually responsible for ensuring that electronic materials they produce or acquire with VA funds — including but not limited to emails, documents, software development, and websites — meet accessibility requirements. Supervisors and Contracting Officers Representatives are responsible for ensuring that all individuals under their oversight comply with these requirements.
Where to get help
- VA Section 508 (internet | intranet)
- Federal Plain Language Guidelines
- Accessibility for Teams
- US Web Design System
- VA Talent Management System (TMS) Passcode Access | Single Sign On (SSO)
- IT Strategic Communication