Illinois Web Accessibility Standards

Client: Illinois Technology Office

In 2001, the Illinois Technology Office asked MSF&W to develop a set of accessibility standards that would incorporate the key components of existing standards in a format that would be appropriate and usable for Illinois web sites. MSF&W designed and developed the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards to meet and exceed the requirements for "Section 508" compliance and to include the most important World Wide Web Consortium Priority 2 and Priority 3 checkpoints.

The standards were well received as a clear and understandable synthesis of the existing standards, and complimented by notable web usability guru Jeffery Zeldman as "a nicely condensed, easy-to-understand tutorial on the subject" (http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0102b.html).

On February 14, 2002, the Governor signed an Administrative Order directing all Illinois agencies to utilize IWAS for the development of web sites, intranets, and web-based applications.