ELUHO is committed to making all its technology covered in Washington State Technology Policy 188 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, when applicable, accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities through conformance with state and federal standards.
Section 508 and Policy 188
Section 508 is a federal law that requires agencies to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data comparable to those who do not have disabilities unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. The Section 508 standards are the technical requirements and criteria that are used to measure conformance within this law. More information on Section 508 and the technical standards can be found at online.
Washington State’s Policy 188 establishes the expectation for state agencies that people with disabilities have access to and use of information and data and are provided access to the same services and content that are available to people without disabilities unless providing direct access is not possible due to technical or legal limitations.
Case Management System
ELUHO’s Case Management System uses the Salesforce and Microsoft SharePoint Online platforms, which allow internal users, case parties, and the public to access case documents and information through standard web browsers. Individuals may search for information and documents online and can download documents from the system. Documents accessible to the public are stored in Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat formats.
The Case Management System platform conforms to the Minimum Accessibility Standards of the Office of the Chief Information Officer Policy 188. Many of the accessibility features available to users, however, are dependent on the web browsers that users choose to use when accessing the Case Management System.
Adobe Acrobat Files
Some of the documents on ELUHO’s website are in HTML or ASCII (plain text) formats. These formats generally are accessible to people who use screen readers. ELUHO also has a large number of documents in Adobe Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF).
PDF format is used to preserve the content and layout of ELUHO's hard copy publications. Publications in PDF only can be viewed and printed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader®, version 3.0 or higher. Download and get help using the Acrobat Reader at the Adobe Systems, Inc. site. The downloadable Acrobat Reader software is free from Adobe.
People using screen-reading devices generally are unable to read documents in PDF format unless they have an accessibility plug-in installed on their systems along with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This plug-in is free from Adobe. Adobe also has online tools that will convert PDF files to HTML on request. To get the plug-in and latest news about Adobe’s accessibility tools and services, visit the Access Adobe website.
Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word Files
ELUHO documents in Microsoft Excel format can be viewed in any version of Excel. For those without this software, the Microsoft Excel mobile app can be used to view the files or store documents on OneDrive or Dropbox, from which Excel Online can open the files in your browser.
ELUHO documents in Microsoft PowerPoint format can be viewed in any version of PowerPoint. For those without this software, the Microsoft Corporation offers a free PowerPoint file viewer that can download from the Microsoft Download Center. Help using the viewer also is available at the Microsoft Download Center.
ELUHO documents in Microsoft Word format can be viewed in Word, version 6.0 or higher. Word documents also can be viewed with many other word processing software programs. Additionally, Microsoft offers a free Word file viewer that can downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.
Zoom Meetings
ELUHO boards sometimes use Zoom to host meetings, case conferences, and hearings. Zoom offers captioning, transcription, and video options as well as screen reader support, keyboard shortcuts, and other accessibility settings. Find out more about Zoom accessibility options at the Zoom Accessibility Page.
Accessibility Coordinator
If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact ELUHO’s accessibility coordinator, Jamie Merly or 360-485-1282, relay service for hearing impaired, call 711.