Overview

July 15

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Constituents want to engage with state and local government agencies online. They want to get information quickly, conduct transactions and self-serve whenever possible. And governments are stepping up to the plate, offering increasingly robust digital services and better communication through online channels.

Unfortunately, the experience isn’t equally accessible for everyone. While Section 508 and other codified guidelines require websites and digital documents to provide reasonable equal access to individuals with disabilities, tools like text-to-speech do not work properly when website and document information is not adequately organized. 

 Join Government Technology on July 15 at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern as we discuss how technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning can help government agencies easily and quickly provide truly accessible digital content.

We’ll discuss how you can:

  • Become more inclusive for all constituents and better engage residents
  • Transition to digital accessibility efficiently and affordably
  • Ensure compliance to all state and national standards

 

Speakers

Ian Smith headshot

Ian Smith

Director - Accessibility Platforms & Solutions, codemantra

Ian Smith is an experienced product manager with a demonstrated history of working in the content lifecycle industry, assisting organizations with digital document compliance strategies and remediation plans. Ian has been a thought leader in document accessibility. He has advised private and public institutions to help them become compliant with various accessibility standards across various document formats. As part of this, Ian has collaborated with industry thought leaders in web accessibility and has successfully established a digital document accessibility platform and solution program within codemantra.

Bill Rials headshot

Bill Rials — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program. He focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. Before transitioning to academia and higher education, he had a diverse gov tech career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Mississippi.

Bob Woolley headshot

Bob Woolley

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Bob was the chief technical architect for the state of Utah’s Department of Technology Services, including the development of the state’s Utah.gov portal. Utah has been widely recognized in these areas with numerous national awards. He has also been a technical lead and RFP writer for the WSCA/NASPO Cloud and Data Communication Procurements. He has experience with state, county and higher education employee skill assessments and technology upgrade implementations, including large-scale database migrations from RDMS to NoSQL platforms. He has extensive private-sector experience with Microservices Architecture implementation and DevOps using hybrid cloud deployment patterns.