How county-cad.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. and Texas legal framework, the specific features we’ve built, the limitations we know about (including in many Texas CAD portals we link to), and how to tell us about a barrier you’ve encountered.
What’s on this page
1. Our Commitment
county-cad.org/ is built so that anyone — using any device, any browser, any assistive technology — can find their Texas CAD, 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. It is part of every editorial template, every CSS rule, every navigation pattern. 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 & Texas
| 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 county-cad.org/ |
| ADA Title II | 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq. | Covers state and local government — including Texas Central Appraisal District websites and CAD property-search portals we link to |
| 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 |
| Texas Human Rights Act | Tex. Lab. Code Ch. 21 | Texas anti-discrimination law, including disability |
| Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Ch. 121 | Texas Acc. Code Ch. 121 | Texas Accessibility Standards — places of public accommodation, parallel to ADA Title III in some respects |
4. Specific Accessibility Features We’ve 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., “Harris Central Appraisal District” 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 ARB protest descriptions are written at roughly an 8th–10th grade reading level.
HTML walkthroughs as alternative
Where a Texas CAD 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. Texas CAD Portals Are Not Always Accessible
Many Texas Central Appraisal District online property-search portals have residual accessibility gaps on certain assistive-technology combinations — uncaptioned video tutorials, modal dialogs that trap focus, dynamic search-result tables that don’t announce updates to screen readers, GIS map interfaces with poor keyboard accessibility, ARB protest forms with required-field indicators conveyed by colour alone, and legacy property-search interfaces that pre-date current accessibility standards. This is not within our control — those are the CAD’s own systems, governed by ADA Title II (state and local government) and Texas state accessibility law. We provide HTML walkthroughs of Texas CAD procedures as an alternative path to the same information, so that, in many cases, you can plan and prepare your property search or exemption application from our fully accessible HTML before you encounter the CAD portal itself.
If you cannot use a Texas CAD’s property-search 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 CAD’s ADA coordinator directly — most major Texas CADs maintain one. For Texas-specific complaints, the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities provides technical assistance and the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division accepts disability discrimination complaints under state law.
8. Reporting a Barrier
If you encounter a barrier — a page or feature that doesn’t work with your assistive technology, contrast that’s hard to read, a control that can’t be reached by keyboard, or anything else that gets in your way — please tell us. Reports drive our priority queue.
Email info@county-cad.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 didn’t 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
- Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division — accepts disability discrimination complaints under the Texas Human Rights Act
- Texas Governor’s Committee 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@county-cad.org