Digital Accessibility

The International Trade Council’s Go Global Awards celebrate organizations that drive the global economy through their innovations, technologies, and strategies. Chris Lona and his company, CL Design, were honored with a 1st Place Award in the Hospitality category.

Receiving the award, Chris Lona, Owner/principal designer of CL Design, stated “It is a great honor to receive this prestigious award. We are very grateful and humbled by it.”

Kristal Parcon, head of the ITC’s Awards Committee, said “Winning an Award is no small feat. We received a total of 6416 entries, coming from organizations in 178 countries. The breadth of award nominations was truly amazing.“

She continued, “We are humbled by organizations such as CL Design who, in the face of a global pandemic, have displayed leadership, resilience and innovation, while embracing change and supporting their employees and communities in a way never seen before.”

Congratulations, Chris!

ADA Shield, an INNsight company, has debuted a new accessibility overlay for websites in the hotel and restaurant industries that promises to help businesses achieve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The company says that “INNsight was built from the ground-up on a proprietary Software-as-a-Service framework fine-tuned for hospitality businesses.” It boasts an “ADA Tray” plugin with tools to make websites “more perceivable, operable, comprehensible, and robust.”

The product retails for between $19.99-$159.00 per month, making it one of the most affordable accessibility overlay products. For more information, visit the ADA Shield website.

On January 20^th, the United States inaugurated a new presidential administration – and with it came a new White House website. As Rachel Treisman reported for NPR, the website’s expanded feature set suggests the new administration is focused on creating a more accessible and inclusive web experience for all.

Among the new features introduced on WhiteHouse.gov include toggle buttons for increasing the text size and changing the page contrast to dark mode. The website once again features a Spanish-language version, “La Casa Blanca,” first introduced during the George W. Bush administration, but set aside during the Donald J. Trump presidency. Persons using the website’s contact forms will now have a place to select the appropriate gender pronouns and prefixes, such as “they/them” and the gender-neutral title “Mx.”

The work to create an accessible and inclusive website is not yet finished, as the administration invites qualified individuals to join the U.S. Digital Service, a tech service within the White House tasked to “deliver better government services to the American people through technology and design.”

To read more from NPR about the new White House website, click here.

To visit the new White House website, click here.