Innovation Description and Benefit:

Service is one of our foundational pillars at MoDOT, and being inclusive is one of our core values. In order to ensure we were adequately serving all of our customers, we took a look at the content we were distributing on our external website. In 2021, Communications began using a tool called SiteImprove to monitor and report the quality assurance and accessibility of MoDOT’s external website and its contents. Upon review, we found many areas that were not “Section 508” compliant. In short, Section 508 compliance means content is accessible to all users, including those who have visual impairment or other disabilities that require the use of screen readers. Not only is ensuring compliance doing due diligence for our customers, but it’s a legal requirement of our website. We previously worked with contracted developers to fix the issues in the website’s framework, but we found that most of the concerns were in the files we were uploading to the site. To address this, we created a File Compliance Team made up of representatives from CR, IS, HR and EODD to create and distribute a training for the department. The team spent a few months weeding through available resources, developing a training plan, identifying website ‘superusers’ to pilot the training, and creating a training presence on SharePoint and MoDOTU for sustainability moving forward. The effort has resulted in increased awareness and efforts toward accessibility, and we’re seeing improvement in the accessibility score on SiteImprove in the short time since training occurred.