GIC Accessibility Newsletter: Issue #1

By GIC Published on October 08th, 2025

Last updated on October 08th, 2025

Welcome to our new newsletter!

Our goal is to inform, to alert, and to provide digital accessibility resources for editors and stakeholders of Delaware state agencies that work with the GIC.

We’ll be counting down to the pending ADA accessibility deadline of April 24, 2026, reminding you to keep your website’s remediation on your radar between now and then.

Cartoon showing an inclusive workplace with someone in a wheelchair on a video call with colleagues.

There will be tips, specs, and reality checks!

Accessibility Countdown:

198 Days
(28 weeks, 2 days)
until Accessibility Deadline (4/24/26)

ADA State and Local Government Compliance Guide

Why should you care?

Here’s a recent article about the subject on a civic tech site.

And here’s a post we did in this blog.

How are your colleagues in Delaware government working toward accessibility compliance these days?

“We are organizing our collection of photos and making sure they are all properly captioned with appropriate alt text.”

Jordyn Willis
Exhibit Art Specialist
Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs

Resource: How to add alt text in WordPress.

“We are determining how many pages and PDFs need review… We were already updating some of our PDF forms for our website and are making sure they are accessible before being uploaded.”

Ami Judd
Management Analyst III
Delaware Division of Corporations

Resource: How to ensure your PDFs are accessible.

“Currently focusing on making sure our text size and visual contrast are compliant, as well as updating alt text.”

Daniel Faison
Planner IV
Department of Labor

Resources: WebAIM Contrast Checker and TPGI’s Colour Contrast Analyser.

Tell us how your agency is working on accessibility

Question of the Week

A man sitting at a computer with a video editing program open. He is reviewing closed captioning for the video.

For YouTube videos, do we need to always use the auto closed captions option?

Is that good enough to be compliant?

Unfortunately, auto-captioning in both YouTube and Vimeo is not always good enough to be compliant. There are often complaints about accuracy of the transcripts as they are affected by accents, fast or overlapping speech, and background noise.

Auto captions also don’t identify speakers by name, which can be critical for clarity. The best option is to upload a custom caption file that has been manually reviewed and edited.

Here’s how to review and address accessibility in videos.

Upcoming Accessibility Events

October 14: WordPress Accessibility Day
WordPress (WP) Accessibility Day is a 24-hour global event dedicated to promoting & learning website accessibility best practices for WordPress websites.

October 15-16: ACCESS 2025
(Virtual)
Free two-day virtual accessibility conference by 3Play Media.

October 16-27: #a11yWeekTO Conf
(Toronto)
#a11yWeekTO is Back! We’re happy to announce that #a11yTO is once again taking over Downtown Toronto October 16th-27th for a full week of accessibility events! Join us this October for #a11yTO Conf on the 16th and 17th!

October 23: Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC) Executive Committee Meeting
(Dover or Virtual) 4pm
In-person at Margaret O’Neill Building, 410 Federal Street, Suite 2, Dover, DE 19901-2nd floor conference room AND on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88189667122

It’s Time to Sign Up for Lighthouse!

It’s an exciting time for Delaware state agency websites, and we have an exciting announcement: We have created a queue for Delaware agencies looking to upgrade their websites through our accessibly compliant design system.

Anyone can leverage the Lighthouse design system through our Storybook documentation.

And agencies that are already working with the GIC can sign up right now!
Find out how to sign up for Lighthouse in our latest blog post.

Remember, the GIC is here to help!

Use this form to ask us any digital accessibility question.

And don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter and the blog at the top of this page!

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