Website Policies

Heartland Educational Consortium is committed to making its website accessible to all users, and we are committed to making our website/webpages compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA and the Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.1. We strive to ensure that people with disabilities can access our services, participate in our programs, and benefit from our community resources.

This website includes several features designed to improve accessibility for users with disabilities:

• Images on the website contain "alt tags" to help users with screen readers listen to the content.

• ARIA landmark roles provide a powerful way to identify the organization and structure of a web page. By classifying and labeling sections of a page, they enable structural information that is conveyed visually through layout to be represented programmatically. Screen readers exploit landmark roles to provide keyboard navigation to important sections of a page. Landmark regions can also be used by browser extensions to enhance keyboard navigation.

• Information made available on our website is generally available in html. In some cases we may publish a document using Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

• Users can get information regarding the accessibility of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files from the Adobe website www.adobe.com/accessibility.

To improve the accessibility of our website, Heartland Educational Consortium reviews the site's accessibility manually in conjunction with outside web tools (WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool: http://wave.webaim.org/) as one method of monitoring accessibility on a quarterly basis and/or whenever new content is published. A current WAVE report is available at http://wave.webaim.org/report#/www.heartlanded.org . Adjustments are then made as necessary.

If you have a disability and the format of any material on our website interferes with your ability to access some information contained on our site, please email Lindsey Johnson at lindsey.johnson@heartlanded.org. Your request will be referred to the appropriate department to provide you with an alternate form of the requested material, as available. Please indicate the nature of the accessibility problem, your preferred format, the web address of the requested material, and your full contact information so we can reach you if questions arise while fulfilling your request.

We welcome comments on how to improve the site's accessibility for users with disabilities. Contact Lindsey Johnson by phone at 863-531-0444 extension 203 or email at lindsey.johnson@heartlanded.org. For information about how to file a formal grievance under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, please see the USDOE’s grievance procedure at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/howto.html

• Linking to our website is permissible providing the link accurately describes the content of the linked page.

• Under no circumstances may you “frame” the website or any of its content. Each page within the website must be displayed in full, without any accompanying frame, design, branding, advertising, or promotional materials.

• Any links from our site to external sites should not be considered an endorsement of that site. We are not responsible for the content of other websites.

• Florida has a very broad public records law. Most of the written communications to or from Heartland Educational Consortium are public records available to the public and media upon request.

• Your email communication may be subject to public disclosure. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity.

• Emails sent to staff will in no way be considered binding correspondence. For critical or legal correspondence, please contact staff via telephone or US Postal Service.

You should not assume this website is error free. Although we will make every effort to include current and accurate information on our website, the potential exists that an error may occur. Therefore, neither Heartland Educational Consortium nor any employee warrants the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information at this website. Thank you for your understanding.