PRITS announces creation of new Digital Accessibility Committee
The Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services (PRITS) office announced the creation of the Digital Accessibility Committee, as part of their initiatives to give priority to the needs of the community of people with visual and hearing disabilities.
The committee is made up of community members with disabilities, as well as staff from the Ombudsman for People with Disabilities and staff from PRTIS.
“In April, we issued interface and design guides as well as the implementation of a new platform for the development of government websites to ensure that they meet the accessibility requirements from its development,” said the Chief Executive of PRITS, Enrique Völckers-Nin.
They also established evaluation protocols for the entire process of creating a website, system or mobile application that serves the public.
A workshop will be held to ensure that all government IT personnel in charge of developing websites are trained with updated accessibility guides. The session will be led by José M. Álvarez-Cabán, member of the Digital Accessibility Advisory Committee and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.
“At PRITS we’re focusing and ensuring that the websites are not only intuitive, structured, and easy to navigate, but also guarantee access equal to people with disabilities,” said the Creative Director of PRITS, Omar Feliciano.
“We achieve this with the implementation of essential design principles, contrasts and font sizes, functional alternative texts and efficient navigation by screen readers,” said Feliciano.
In addition, they will work together with the committee and the Legislature to analyze the laws that affect accessibility, as well as update Law 229 of 2003, also known as the “Act to Guarantee Access to Information for People with Disabilities.”
