Website Accessibility Policy

• Introduction
• Use of Graphic Imagery on This Website
• Format of Documents on This Website
• Accessing Content on This Website
• Use of Assistive Technology to View This Website
• Contact Information Concerning Accessibility and This Website

Introduction

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance maintains its Website to allow general accessibility using standards set forth by the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS). Pages on this site are reviewed and revised to be accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with provisions of Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. This includes making its Websites compliant with Conformance Level “Priority 1” of the World Wide Web Consortium accessibility rating.

Use of Graphic Imagery on This Website

Images on the site contain ‘alt tags’ with descriptions of the image that aid users who listen to the content of the site by using a screen reader rather than reading the site.

Format of Documents on This Website

Documents and other special publications that are made available on the OTDA Website are generally available in HTML. In many cases, we publish documents using Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). If as a result of your disability, you are having difficulty accessing any of the information listed on this site, please e-mail the OTDA Public Information Officer at nyspio@otda.ny.gov.

Accessing Content on This Website

The OTDA website is large and contains documents stored in multiple formats, including PDFs and Microsoft Office documents for download.

• Accessing PDFs
  • Browser Support for PDFs
  • Downloading PDFs
• Accessing Microsoft Office Documents
  • Microsoft Office Resources
  • Accessing Word Documents on Windows Versions prior to 10

Accessing PDFs

Depending on your browser settings, PDFs will either download onto your computer or display in the browser window.

If you use assistive technologies to read PDFs, the preferred method is to download the PDF and view it directly with your preferred assistive software.

Browser Support for PDFs

Most browsers can now support viewing PDFs directly. For proper viewing, you may have to install an Adobe PDF plugin. The default behavior for different browsers is as follows:

Chrome

Chrome will open a PDF in the browser window using it's own PDF reader. The Chrome PDF reader is not compatible with most assistive technologies. If you use assistive technologies, configure Chrome to always download PDFs.

Explorer, Edge, and Firefox

Explorer, Edge and Firefox will open a PDF in the browser window if the Adobe PDF plugin is installed, otherwise they will download it. PDFs displayed through the Adobe PDF plugin should be compatible with assistive technologies.

Safari

Safari will open a PDF in the browser window using it's own PDF reader. The Safari PDF reader should be mostly compatible with most assistive technologies, but some advanced features will be missing.

Downloading PDFs

To manually download a PDF:

1. Select the link with your right mouse button or its equivalent to access the shortcut menu.
2. From the shortcut menu, select the Save or Download option.

Accessing Microsoft Office Documents

Microsoft Office documents include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

When you select a link to a Microsoft Office document:

• Microsoft Edge and Explorer will prompt you for whether to Open or Save the document.
• All other browsers will download the document.

If you are using Edge or Explorer to view a Microsoft document, the browser will open document in the appropriate application. If you do not have the necessary application, the browser will try to install Microsoft controls to display the document in the browser. You may be required to approve these before they will install or run.

Other browsers require you have Microsoft Office or Microsoft document reader to read the document once it has downloaded.

Microsoft Office Resources

Some useful external links for working with Microsoft Office documents:

• Download the free Excel Mobile app.
• Download the free PowerPoint Mobile app.
• Download the free Word Mobile app.

Accessing Word Documents on Windows Versions prior to 10

Microsoft has dropped all support for free Word viewers for systems running anything older than Windows 10. There are no easy solutions to this if you are on an older system.

If you do not have Microsoft Office on your computer and are blocked from installing Microsoft controls in Edge or Explorer to display the document directly in the browser, you have the following options available:

• Sign up for Microsoft Office Online. This requires a Microsoft email account, which will allow you to copy files to OneDrive, where the Office Online apps can see them.
• Download and install LibreOffice, a free and open source office suite that is Microsoft Office compatible.

Use of Assistive Technology to View This Website

Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate all users who utilize standards compliant Web browsers as well as enabling software or assistive devices. We welcome comments on how to improve the site’s accessibility for users with disabilities.

If you use assistive technology and the format of any material on our Website interferes with your ability to access the information, please use the following point of contact for assistance. To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem, the preferred format in which to receive the material, the Web address of the requested material, and your contact information.

Contact Information Concerning Accessibility and This Website

The primary contact for the OTDA Website can be notified at: nyspio@otda.ny.gov