ADA Compliance and Web Content Accessibility

Alternative Means of Access Statement

If you have difficulty accessing any materials on our website, please contact DOCAccessibility@conservation.ca.gov and we will correct the problem or provide the information in an alternate format.

Website Accessibility Certification

The Department of Conservation is committed to making our website available for all visitors. The Department of Conservation's website is designed, developed, and maintained to be in compliance with California Government Code Sections 7405 and 11135, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium at a minimum Level AA success criteria.

The undersigned certify that, as of 06/28/2023 the website of the Department of Conservation is designed, developed, and maintained to be accessible. This denotes compliance with the following:

California Government Code Sections 7405, 11135, and 11546.7
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium
At a minimum Level AA success criteria

Download the signed copy of certification, in PDF format.

Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance Notice

In accordance with the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the California Department of Conservation (DOC) will not discriminate against individuals with disabilities on the basis of their disability in its programs, services, or activities.

Employment
DOC does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its hiring or employment practices and complies with all federal and state laws. DOC has a separate Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and Discrimination Complaint Procedures which governs employment and complaints of disability discrimination.

Effective Communication
DOC will generally, upon request, provide appropriate aids and services leading to effective communication for qualified persons with disabilities so they can participate equally in DOC’s programs, services, and activities, including qualified sign language interpreters, documents in Braille, and other ways of making information and communication accessible to people who have speech, hearing, or vision impairments.

Modifications to Policies and Procedures
DOC will make all reasonable modifications to policies and programs to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to enjoy all of its programs, services, and activities. For example, individuals with service animals are welcomed at DOC offices, even where pets are generally prohibited.

Anyone who requires an auxiliary aid or service for effective communication, or a modification of policies or procedures to participate in a program, service or activity of DOC, should contact Elaine Austin, ADA & Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator, at (916) 324-9378 or by email elaine.austin@conservation.ca.gov within 10 days before the scheduled event or need.

The ADA does not require DOC to take any action that would fundamentally alter the nature of its programs or services or impose an undue hardship.

Complaints that a program, service, or activity of DOC is not accessible to persons with disabilities should be directed to Elaine Austin at (916) 324-9378 or by email elaine.austin@conservation.ca.gov. DOC will not place a surcharge on individuals requesting auxiliary aids/services or reasonable modifications of policy that is not also extended to persons without disabilities.

ADA Complaint Procedure

This Complaint Procedure is established to meet the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). It may be used by anyone who wishes to file a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of services, activities, programs, or benefits by the California Department of Conservation (DOC). DOC has a separate procedure governing employment for employees and applicants.

ADA Complaint Form

The complaint should be in writing and contain information about the alleged discrimination such as name, address, phone number of complainant and location, date, and description of the problem using the ADA Complaint Form (MS Word). Alternative means of filing complaints, such as personal interviews or a tape recording of the complaint is acceptable for persons with disabilities upon request.

The complainant and/or his/her designee should submit the complaint as soon as possible but no later than 60 calendar days after the alleged violation to:

Elaine Austin
ADA & Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator
California Department of Conservation
801 K Street
Sacramento, CA 98514
(916) 324-9378

Within 15 calendar days after receipt of the complaint, the ADA Coordinator or designee will meet with the complainant to discuss the complaint and the possible resolutions. Within 15 calendar days of the meeting, the ADA Coordinator or designee will respond in writing, and where appropriate, in a format accessible to the complainant, such as large print, Braille, or audio tape. The response will explain the position of DOC and offer options for resolution of the complaint.

If the response by the DOC's ADA Coordinator does not satisfactorily resolve the issue, the complainant and/or his/her designee may appeal the decision within 15 calendar days with the Director of Conservation or his/her designee.

Within 15 calendar days of receipt of the appeal, the Director or his/her designee will meet with the complainant to discuss the complaint and possible resolutions. Within 15 calendar days after the meeting, the Director or designee will provide a written response of the final resolution of the complaint.

All written complaints received by the ADA Coordinator, the appeals and responses will be retained by DOC for at least three years.

Alternative Formats

In accordance with the California Government Code and ADA requirements, this document can be made available in Braille, large print, compact disk, or tape cassette as a disability-related reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. Please contact Elaine Austin at (916) 324-9378 or California Relay Service “711” with your specific request or email elaine.austin@conservation.ca.gov.

We believe the California State Portal satisfies all Priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines, for "AA" compliance of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. In addition, the California Portal satisfies Section 508, Subpart B, Subsection 1194.22, Guidelines A-P of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as revised in 1998. The State of California is strongly committed to improved accessibility for all Californians.

The State of California accepts no responsibility for the content or accessibility of the external websites or external documents linked to on this website.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

As directed by Executive Order D-17-00 issued on September 8, 2000, a comprehensive eGovernment initiative was launched that requires every agency and department to adhere to technical standards for accessible Web design and compatibility. The Accessibility Guide enables the State to utilize the best tools and design available to ensure that the content of the new California portal can be reached by the widest possible audience regardless of disability, limitations of computer equipment or use of alternate Internet access devices.

In addition, State accessibility guidelines enable agencies to meet State and Federal statutory requirements prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in the design of both Internet and Intranet web sites. For example, California Government Code Section 11135 et seq. prohibits discrimination by entities receiving funding from the State of California.

Likewise, Federal requirements mandating access for persons with disabilities were first imposed on State recipients of Federal funding by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Today there are numerous Federal statutes and regulations extending civil rights protections to persons with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as well as the 1998 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act, where specific technical requirements for accessible web design have been published by the U.S. Access Board. This is important since Title II of the ADA recognizes the importance of communication and the necessity of the State of California to take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with persons with disabilities are as effective as communications with others.

Between 17% and 19% of United States citizens have some level of disability. In fact, about l out of 5 Americans have some form of disability and 1 in 10 have a severe disability. These 1997 statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau also report that with the population aging and the likelihood that disabilities can increase with age, the growth in the number of people with disabilities is expected to accelerate in the coming decades. See Census Brief (pdf), December 1997.

To have effective communication with the widest audience possible, this Accessibility Guide provides assistance in how to use alternate forms of communication. Disabilities can fall into four basic categories:

Blind/Low Vision. Assistive computer technology for this audience includes screen readers, refreshable Braille displays and screen magnifiers. To assist with accessibility for Blind/Low Vision population, features such as keyboard navigation, scalability of font size, fuzzy searches, alt tags and high contrast between the background and the text are helpful.
Deaf/Hard of Hearing. To assist with accessibility for people with hearing loss, captioning synchronized with multimedia as well as volume control enable accessibility.
Mobility. Assistive computer technology for this audience includes one-handed keyboards, head/mouth sticks and eye tracking. Keyboard navigation as well as voice recognition software may be used by this population to help navigate through a web site.
Cognitive and Specific Learning Disabilities. To appeal to a highly diverse audience, with varying levels of ability, use the following design principles: Simple navigation, consistency in content presentation, clear labels, meaningful content, executive summaries at top of long documents and vocabulary understood by a wide audience.

This web site contains links to PDF documents that require the most current version of Adobe Reader to view. The Adobe Acrobat Reader may already be installed on your computer as a "plug-in" or "helper application" for your web browser. To find out, click on the "PDF" link for the document you are interested in. If the Adobe Acrobat Reader is properly installed on your computer, the Reader will either download or automatically open a PDF copy of the document, depending on your browser and how it is configured. If the Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed on your computer, it can be found, free of charge, at the Adobe Acrobat Reader download page.

If you are using a screen reader, you may find it will not read some documents in PDF format. Adobe provides a web site that will convert non-accessible PDF files to a format that is useable with a screen reader. The Adobe Access site is located at access.adobe.com, and the tool can also be added to your computer as a "plug-in".

But the digital divide does not just affect people with disabilities. People without disabilities who have busy hands or eyes, poor lighting or noisy surroundings will find the California portal very user-friendly. People with slow modems, older browsers, or those using alternate internet access devices (e.g., cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, etc.) will also benefit from a highly accessible web site. This Accessibility Guide will continue to be updated as technology evolves and new tools and resources for accessibility are developed.

Reasonable Accommodation

If a reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact Elaine Austin, ADA & Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator, by phone at (916) 324-9378 or by email at elaine.austin@conservation.ca.gov.