Chris Stines is Planetizen's former Editor and the founder of Urban Insight, a leading digital agency. Chris has 25 years of experience in technology consulting and urban planning and has served as a consultant to public sector state, county, and local agencies, Fortune 500 private firms, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.
California IT Strategic Plan - I Stand Corrected
<img src="http://www.cio.ca.gov/images/ClarkKelso-www2.jpg" alt="Clark Kelso" align="right" />Clark Kelso, California's Chief Information Officer, was kind enough to respond to my recent post, <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/archives/2005/10/18/326/ ">California Updates State IT Strategic Plan</a>, commenting on the state's new strategic plan and what I perceived to be a lack of focus on making technology accessible to people with disabilities.<br /> <br /> Clark writes:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>...I am pleased to see that our planning activities are being followed so closely in the trade press.<br /> <br /> The last paragraph in your article suggests we may not be paying sufficient attention to Section 508 issues in our web developments. Although we did not cite Section 508 in the strategic plan, accessibility is the very heart of our efforts. As your article notes,<br /> the very first goal of the plan is to "Make government services more accessible to citizens and State clients." That concept of accessibility includes not only opening up new, technology-enabled vehicles for delivering services, information and benefits, but the goal of ensuring that those vehicles -- as well as all existing vehicles -- are ADA accessible and compliant.<br /> <br /> Our Portal Steering Committee, which was only recently created and is just starting to warm up to the topic, has already expressly recognized ADA compliance as a required component of the State's web presence. The following link plainly identifies ADA accessibility and compliance as a necessary aspect of the user interface: <br /> <a href="http://www.cio.ca.gov/PDFs/Portal_Committee-040805.pdf">http://www.cio.ca.gov/PDFs/Portal_Committee-040805.pdf</a> (PDF, 100KB) <br /> <br /> The State's web pages are NOT always appropriately accessible, but this is most certainly an issue that we take seriously at the highest planning levels, and we encourage all departments to make accessibility a high priority. </blockquote>
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