Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office
Accessibility Policy

State Attorney Fernandez Rundle firmly believes that the internet should be available and accessible by everyone and is committed to providing a website that meets the needs of persons with disabilities.

To fulfill this goal, the Miami SAO adheres to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines provide how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with these guidelines helps us ensure the website is accessible to all persons with disabilities.

Our website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes the accessibility level constantly. This application adapts the functionality and behavior of the website for screen-readers used by blind users and keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.  It also addresses potential HTML issues.  It also utilizes an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and adapt it to their personal needs.

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation on the Miami SAO website

The Miami SAO website uses ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters our site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can navigate our site effectively.

Here is how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

1. Screen-reader optimization: We provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and other content.

The background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an alternate text (ALT) tag for images that are not described. It also extracts texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

All of our adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA and our background process learns the website’s components from top to bottom and provides ongoing assistance, even when we are updating the website.

1. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This allows users to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.

Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site, while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Disability profiles supported in our website

• Epilepsy Safe Profile:this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by minimizing the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
• Visually Impaired Profile:this profile adjusts the website to make it accessible to the majority of individuals who have visual impairments, including, but not limited to, Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, and Glaucoma.
• Cognitive Disability Profile:this profile provides various assistive features to help users with cognitive disabilities like Autism, Dyslexia, CVA, and others focus on the essential elements more easily.
• ADHD Friendly Profile: this profile significantly reduces distractions and noise, to help individuals with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders browse, read, and focus on the essential elements more easily.
• Blind Users Profile (Screen-readers):this profile adjusts the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack installed on the user’s computer.
• Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired):this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments available on our website

1. Font adjustments – users can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
5. Audio muting – This option, which is particularly helpful for people susceptible to migraines or who use hearing devices, lets users mute the entire website instantly.
6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

Browser and assistive technology compatibility

The Miami SAO aims to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible in order for our users to choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have designed our system so that it is compatible with the major systems comprising over 95% of the user market, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow individuals to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible because we are working on them or because of limitations in technology. Nevertheless, we are continually doing everything we reasonably can to improve accessibility by adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies.

If you find a malfunction, find any aspect of the website difficult to use, or have ideas for improvement, we will be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators at zacharyrinkins@miamisao.com.