Digital Accessibility for Airports: Ensuring Compliance and Inclusion with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
At Aviatrix Communications, we are committed to leading the aviation industry in digital accessibility. With the new Department of Justice (DOJ) Title 2 update on digital accessibility effective June 24, 2024, we are ready to help airports ensure their websites, mobile apps, social media, videos, and documents are fully accessible and compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Our comprehensive services are designed to support airports in achieving and maintaining digital accessibility, creating an equal user experience for everyone.
Compliance Deadline for Most Airports and Government Organizations: April 24, 2026
Understanding the DOJ’s New Rule
The DOJ’s final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act sets out new requirements for digital accessibility. This rule impacts all government entities, including airports and their supporting stakeholders:
- Effective Date: June 24, 2024
- Compliance Timeline: Special district government entities have three years to comply from the effective date, while state and local governments including most airports have two years to comply from the effective date.
- Standards: The rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA as the technical standard for digital accessibility.
- Scope: Compliance is required for all digital platforms, including websites, mobile apps, social media, videos, and documents. This includes all third-party integrations, products, services and digital products that airports utilize. Effective communication must continue to be provided across all airport programs.
Our Comprehensive Digital Accessibility Services for Airports
Aviatrix Communications offers a full range of services to help airports comply with the new accessibility standards:
Website Accessibility Remediation
- Manual Audits and Reviews: Comprehensive manual and automated audits, with the option to involve members of the disability community to identify and address accessibility issues.
- WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance: Detailed remediation plans, budgeting, training, and implementation to ensure your website meets the latest accessibility standards.
- Document Remediation: Conversion of inaccessible PDFs and documents into fully accessible documents.
Social Media and Digital Content Accessibility
- Social Media Accessibility: Ensuring all social media content, including posts, videos, and images, are accessible.
- Video and Document Remediation: Providing captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions for videos and documents.
Training and Education
Accessibility Training for Content Creators: Training sessions to educate your team on creating accessible content.
Certification and Reporting
- Accessibility Certification: Obtain certification to validate compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
- Comprehensive Reporting and Compliance Monitoring: Detailed reports on your airports accessibility status and ongoing compliance measures.
Proactive Support and Consultation
- Consultation Services: Tailored accessibility strategies to meet your airport’s specific needs.
- Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance: Regular audits, updates, and maintenance to keep your digital content accessible.
Accessible and Inclusive Design Services
At Aviatrix Communications, we believe that true accessibility goes beyond merely meeting regulatory requirements. Many airports use brand colors, fonts, and logos that may not be accessible or compliant due to issues with contrast and readability. We offer comprehensive design services to help airports create a fully accessible and inclusive brand, ensuring that every aspect of your visual identity is accessible to all users.
Accessible and Inclusive Design Services
- Brand Audits: Assess your current branding elements to identify potential accessibility issues.
- Color Contrast Optimization: Adjust brand colors to ensure sufficient contrast, enhancing readability without compromising your brand identity.
- Font and Typography: Select and adjust fonts to ensure they are legible and accessible, considering factors such as size, spacing, and style.
- Logo, Website, and Brand Asset Redesign: Redesign your airport’s website, logo, and brand assets to improve accessibility while maintaining brand recognition.
- Accessible Brand Guidelines: Develop comprehensive brand guidelines that incorporate accessibility best practices, ensuring consistency and compliance across all digital and print materials.
- ADA Compliant Templates for Airports: Our WCAG ADA certified graphic design team can create accessible templates for all brand assets and train your airport staff on how to effectively use them to create accessible documents.
By integrating accessibility into your brand design, we help you create an inclusive experience that welcomes all users, reinforcing your commitment to accessibility and compliance.
Creating a Digital Accessibility Plan
We understand the importance of having a comprehensive plan to achieve and maintain digital accessibility. Aviatrix Communications offers a tailored digital accessibility plan for your airport, including:
- Assessment and Benchmarking: Evaluate your current digital accessibility status and benchmark against WCAG 2.1 AA standards. This service is offered virtually, but can be extended to include an onsite visit to assess in-terminal digital assets.
- Strategic Planning: Develop a strategic plan outlining the steps needed to achieve compliance, including budgeting, training, remediation, timelines and milestones.
- RACI: We provide a comprehensive responsible, accountable, consulted and informed tool for airports that clearly showcases all of the airports digital assets and breaks down responsibilities across airport departments, tenants, consultants, and contractors.
- Policies and Templates: We build custom accessibility policies and templates for airports, including accessibility statements, ADA training logs, accessibility feedback forms and complaint process management, internal employee accessibility policies, and draft contract language that meets Title 2 and Section 508 requirements.
- Resource Allocation: Identify and allocate resources, including technology, personnel, and budget, to support accessibility efforts.
- Implementation Support: Provide guidance and support during the implementation of the accessibility plan.
- Training and Capacity Building: Conduct training sessions to build internal capacity for maintaining accessibility.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Establish ongoing monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure continued compliance and improvement.
Our Accessibility Process and Approach
Aviatrix Communications has developed a thorough and effective process to ensure your airport’s digital content meets the highest standards of accessibility. We implement manual code level fixes and do not utilize ineffective overlay solutions. Our approach includes the following steps:
Initial Consultation
We begin with a comprehensive consultation to understand your airport’s specific needs, challenges, and goals. During this initial meeting, we discuss the process and requirements, gather necessary information, and set expectations for timing and access to your site and products.
Comprehensive Audits
Audits are crucial for identifying and addressing accessibility barriers, ensuring your digital content meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards. By conducting comprehensive audits, we can pinpoint specific areas that need improvement and develop targeted remediation plans to enhance accessibility for all users. We conduct two different types of audits, utilizing technology and members of the disability community to ensure we’ve identified all accessibility barriers.
- Manual Audits: We conduct thorough audits with our certified accessibility consultants to identify and address accessibility barriers. After our initial audit, we’ll conduct monthly manual reviews in addition to automated scans.
- Automated Scans: Using our accessibility software, we perform automated monthly scans and identify common accessibility issues and manually validate the results.
Detailed Remediation Plans
Based on the audit results, we develop detailed remediation plans, a timeline, and a budget to address all identified issues, ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
Implementation
Our team of certified accessibility experts implements the remediation plans, making necessary adjustments to your website, mobile apps, social media content, software, videos, and documents.
Training and Education
We offer one-on-one personalized training sessions and webinars for your airport’s content creators, educating them on best practices for maintaining accessibility and compliance.
Ongoing Monitoring and Reporting
We provide continuous monitoring and reporting services, using a combination of manual and automated scanning tools to regularly scan and fix any new accessibility issues that arise.
Reporting and Certification
We deliver comprehensive reports detailing your accessibility status and ongoing compliance efforts. We also assist in obtaining accessibility certification from recognized bodies.
Get Started with Aviatrix Communications
Let’s work together to make your airport’s digital presence inclusive and accessible. Reach out to Aviatrix Communications to discuss your accessibility needs and start your journey towards inclusion and compliance today.