How countytaxassessor.org/ Works for People With Disabilities
This page sets out our commitment to accessibility on this site, the standards we work to (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), the assistive technologies we test against, the U.S. legal framework, the specific features we have built, the limitations we know about (including in many county portals we link to), and how to tell us about a barrier you have encountered.
What’s on this page
1. Our Commitment
countytaxassessor.org/ is built so that anyone — using any device, any browser, any assistive technology — can find their county Assessor and Tax Collector, follow a step-by-step property-search walkthrough, find the right exemption form with its deadline, and reach the right desk without barriers. Accessibility is not an afterthought. We test against assistive technologies on every major page template before publication and on a quarterly cycle thereafter.
2. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA
We work to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This is the standard the U.S. Department of Justice has long used as the benchmark for ADA website accessibility, and it is the procurement standard for federal-agency websites under Section 508 (which references WCAG 2.0 Level AA in the 2017 Refresh; we target the slightly newer 2.1 AA).
3. Legal Framework — United States
| Law | Citation | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| ADA Title III | 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq. | Prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodation — covers private publishers and information-service websites such as countytaxassessor.org/ |
| ADA Title II | 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq. | Covers state and local government — including county Assessor and Tax Collector / Treasurer websites we link to, and state Department of Revenue websites |
| Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act | 29 U.S.C. § 794 | Prohibits disability discrimination by federally-funded programs — covers federal resources we cross-reference |
| Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act | 29 U.S.C. § 794d | Federal procurement standard; 2017 Refresh aligns Section 508 with WCAG 2.0 AA — covers federal-agency websites |
| 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) | Pub. L. 111-260 | Telecommunications and video accessibility |
| State anti-discrimination laws | Each state has its own — e.g., California Unruh Act, Texas Human Rights Act (Tex. Lab. Code Ch. 21), New York State Human Rights Law, Florida Civil Rights Act, Illinois Human Rights Act | State-level disability anti-discrimination, parallel in some respects to ADA Title III |
| State accessibility standards | Each state has its own — e.g., Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Ch. 121 (Texas Accessibility Standards), California Government Code §11135 (state-funded site requirements) | State-level accessibility requirements for places of public accommodation and state-funded sites |
4. Specific Accessibility Features We Have Built
Semantic HTML
Proper heading hierarchy (Yoast manages H1; H2/H3 in our templates), nav, main, article, section, footer landmarks.
17px+ body text
Body copy is at least 17px on all pages — comfortable reading for most users without zoom.
4.5:1+ text contrast
All body text meets WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) against its background; large text and UI components meet 3:1 minimum.
Keyboard-only navigation
Every link, button, form control, and interactive element is reachable and operable using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space.
Visible focus indicators
Focus outlines are not removed; the default browser focus ring is preserved on every interactive element.
Descriptive link text
Links describe their destination — e.g., Cook County Assessor rather than click here. Each external link has rel=noopener and target=_blank.
Logical reading order
Source-order matches visual order; CSS layout never reverses, scrambles, or hides content from screen readers.
Responsive without zoom traps
Pages reflow at 320px width; pinch-zoom is not disabled; user-scalable=yes.
Form labels
Every form control has a programmatic label or aria-label; error messages are announced.
Reduced motion
The site respects prefers-reduced-motion and avoids gratuitous animation.
Plain-English drafts
Walkthroughs, exemption summaries, and appeal procedure descriptions are written at roughly an 8th-10th grade reading level.
HTML walkthroughs as alternative
Where a county portal has accessibility barriers, our HTML walkthrough provides an alternative path to the same information.
5. Assistive Technology Compatibility
We test against the following combinations on every major page template before publication:
- NVDA + Firefox / Chrome on Windows
- JAWS + Chrome on Windows
- VoiceOver + Safari on macOS
- VoiceOver + Safari on iOS
- TalkBack + Chrome on Android
- Narrator + Edge on Windows (smoke test)
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking — voice-only navigation smoke test
- Browser zoom at 200% and 400%
- High-contrast mode in Windows and macOS
6. Known Limitations
- Some third-party advertising units may not always meet our internal standards. We work with our advertising partners and reject ad units that fail material accessibility checks.
- Embedded videos from third-party platforms inherit those platforms’ accessibility features (or limitations); we link to transcripts or captioning where the source provides them.
- Some legacy guides built before our current accessibility framework may have minor remaining issues — we are working through them on a rolling quarterly review and welcome reports.
7. County Portals Are Not Always Accessible
Many U.S. county Assessor and Tax Collector / Treasurer online portals have residual accessibility gaps on certain assistive-technology combinations — uncaptioned video tutorials, modal dialogs that trap focus, dynamic search-result tables that do not announce updates to screen readers, GIS map interfaces with poor keyboard accessibility, payment forms with required-field indicators conveyed by colour alone, and legacy portals that pre-date current accessibility standards. This is not within our control — those are the county’s own systems, governed by ADA Title II (state and local government) and state-specific accessibility law. We provide HTML walkthroughs of county procedures as an alternative path to the same information, so that, in many cases, you can plan and prepare your property search, exemption application, or payment from our fully accessible HTML before you encounter the county portal itself.
If you cannot use a county Assessor or Tax Collector portal because of an accessibility barrier, you have rights under ADA Title II. The U.S. Department of Justice ADA portal is at ada.gov. You can also contact the county’s ADA coordinator directly — most county offices maintain one. State-level disability rights commissions and state Departments of Justice also accept complaints.
8. Reporting a Barrier
If you encounter a barrier — a page or feature that does not work with your assistive technology, contrast that is hard to read, a control that cannot be reached by keyboard, or anything else that gets in your way — please tell us. Reports drive our priority queue.
Email info@countytaxassessor.org with subject line Accessibility issue.
If you can, include:
- The page URL where you hit the barrier
- Your operating system and browser
- The assistive technology you were using (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Dragon)
- What you were trying to do
- What happened (or did not happen)
Acknowledge in 1-3 business days. Substantive response or fix within 14 business days for most issues. For severe barriers (e.g., unable to access important content or complete a critical task), within 5 business days.
9. Escalation
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have additional options:
- U.S. Department of Justice ADA portal — ada.gov
- U.S. Access Board (Section 508 technical assistance) — access-board.gov
- State-level disability rights commissions and state Attorneys General — accept disability discrimination complaints under state anti-discrimination laws (California DFEH, Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division, New York State Division of Human Rights, Florida Commission on Human Relations, Illinois Department of Human Rights, and equivalents in every state)
- State Governors’ Committees on People with Disabilities — technical assistance and advocacy
- Federal Communications Commission (CVAA) for telecommunications/video issues — fcc.gov
10. Review Cycle
This statement is reviewed quarterly. Page templates are re-tested against the AT combinations above on each review cycle. The Last reviewed date at the top reflects the most recent review.
Hit a Barrier? Tell Us.
Email us with subject line Accessibility issue. Acknowledge in 1-3 business days; fix within 14 business days for most issues, 5 for severe.
📧 info@countytaxassessor.org