The Colorado Medicaid eConsult Program adheres to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make digital content accessible for people with disabilities. We are committed to improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

This website uses various technologies to make it as accessible as possible. An accessibility interface allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the user interface and design it to meet their personal needs.

The website utilizes an artificial intelligence (AI)-based application that runs in the background to optimize its accessibility level continuously. This application corrects the website code, or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and adapts its functionality and behavior for screen readers used by people with visual impairments and keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

Assistive Technology and Browser Compatibility

We aim to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible so users can choose the best tools for them with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to support commonly used browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, and screen readers, including JAWS (Job Access with Speech), and NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access), both for Windows and Mac users.

Notes, Comments, and Feedback

We are continually improving our accessibility; adding, updating, and improving options and features; and developing and adopting new technologies. Our goal is to follow technological advancements to reach the optimal level of accessibility.

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of this website. Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or lack an adequate technological solution to make them accessible.

If you wish to contact the website administrator or encounter any accessibility issues, please email coloradosupport@safetynetconnect.com. 

Website Accessibility Features

Screen-Reader and Keyboard Navigation

This website implements Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) attributes technique to ensure users with screen readers can read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. Screen-reader users receive automatic announcements to turn on screen-reader mode as soon as they enter the website. The website incorporates some of the most important screen reader requirements in the following ways:

1. Screen reader optimization: A process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom ensures ongoing compliance even when it is being updated. Screen readers receive meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes, such as accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; and element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups). The background process scans all website images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an alternate text (ALT) tag for images that are not described. It extracts text embedded within the image using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Users turn on screen reader adjustments by pressing Alt and 1 at the same time on their keyboard. These adjustments are compatible with popular screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process adjusts the website’s HTML and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the site operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the site using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close dropdowns with the Esc key, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill radio and checkbox elements using the Spacebar or Enter key. Keyboard users can access content-skip menus at any time by pressing Alt and 2 at the same time or will find it is the first element of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus to them as soon as they appear. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Supported Disability Profiles

• Seizure Safe Profile: Enables people with epilepsy to safely use the website by eliminating the risk of seizures resulting from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
• Vision Impaired Profile: Adjusts the website so it is accessible to most visual impairments such as degrading eyesight, tunnel vision, cataract, glaucoma, and others.
• Cognitive Disability Profile: Provides various assistive features to help users with cognitive disabilities such as autism, dyslexia, cerebrovascular accident, and others to focus on essential elements more easily.
• ADHD Friendly Profile: Significantly reduces distractions and noise to help people with ADHD and neurodevelopmental disorders browse, read, and focus on essential elements more easily.
• Screen Reader Profile: For people who are blind, this adjusts the website to be compatible with screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
• Keyboard Navigation Profile: For people who are motor-impaired, enables users to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, Design, and Readability Adjustments

1. Font adjustments: Users can increase and decrease font size, change the family (type), adjust spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
2. Color adjustments: Users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds with more than seven different coloring options.
3. Animations: Users with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
4. Content highlighting: Users can choose to emphasize essential elements such as links and titles or can choose to highlight only focused or hovered elements.
5. Audio muting: Users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users instantly mute the website.
6. Cognitive disorders: A search engine is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, which allows people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and more.
7. Additional functions: Users can change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and utilize many other functions.