Accessibility

Accessibility and Navigation

Web accessibility refers to how easily people with disabilities can navigate and interact with websites. Disabilities may be physical (such as blindness, low vision, deafness, or fine motor skills difficulty), or cognitive (such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorder). People with disabilities often use assistive technologies to help them navigate the web. An assistive technology is any device that helps a person with a disability. Common web assistive technologies include modified mouse or trackball devices and keyboards, screen readers, braille readers, and screen magnifiers.

Web accessibility occurs when websites support web accessibility standards, are compatible with assistive technologies, and are easy for people to navigate and understand.

At Great Plains QIN, we follow web accessibility standards closely.

Assistive Technology

We do this primarily by complying with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requirements. Section 508 requires that individuals with disabilities, including Federal employees, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to those without disabilities. Great Plains Quality Innovation Network strives to meet this goal except when comparable access would result in undue burden.

If you use assistive technology (such as a Braille reader, screen reader, TTY, etc.) and cannot access information due to the format of the material, please contact Great Plains Quality Innovation Network by phone at 1-402-476-1700 or Contact Us using our online form. For additional information about the availability of auxiliary aids and services, visit the Medicare Web site.

Design decisions that Great Plains QIN uses to benefit screen reader users include the following items:

  • Standard page design. Similar functionality appears in the same place and is accessed in the same way across tools.
  • Simple heading structure across all tools. Heading 1 is used for page titles. Heading 2 is used for widgets and major page sections. Heading 3 is used to organize information within widgets and subsections.
  • Unique, contextual link names and button names.
  • Title attributes on links that open the link in a new window. It is recommended that you adjust your screen reader settings to read the title attribute. When this setting is turned on, the screen reader alerts you when a link opens in a new window.
  • Descriptive alternative text on all system images and graphics. Brightspace Learning Environment also prompts course designers to include alternative text when uploading images.
  • Table row and column markup and table summaries or captions.
  • Toggle icons, such as show/hide, indicate the state of the control.
  • Skip navigation links and ARIA landmarks so you can skip sections of a page.
  • Full keyboard accessibility. The tab order is logical and tab focus is visually indicated.
  • WAI-ARIA markup for links, context menus, error messages, and confirmation messages to help improve navigation.
    Support for browser and assistive technology scaling and contrast options. System content uses styles that you can overwrite using cascading style sheets (CSS); however, the complexity of the system requires detailed style sheets.

Problems With Accessibility On This Website

If you have questions, comments or suggestions related to accessibility on our website, please call us at 1-800-458-4262 for assistance. Or please complete the contact us form and we’ll get back to you. To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem, the preferred format in which to receive the material, the web address of the requested material and your contact information.

Access to Medicare Resources

Visit these links for information about Accessibility and  Nondiscrimination.