40-5 Beyond Compliance: Building a Culture of Digital Accessibility at the Kentucky Geological Survey

Abstract:

State geological surveys communicate science through sprawling collections of digital assets: websites, searchable databases, interactive maps and ArcGIS StoryMaps, PDF publications and maps, presentations, images, and audio and video media. When any of these are inaccessible to people using assistive technologies, the science they contain is effectively unavailable to part of the public it is meant to serve. Prompted by the April 2026 federal deadline requiring conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) undertook a comprehensive effort to make its digital resources accessible and, just as importantly, to build an internal culture where accessibility becomes a routine part of how staff create and publish content. 

This presentation shares KGS’s practical experience from July 2025 through April 2026 and beyond. We describe a phased approach that began with adopting a formal accessibility work plan,cataloging all digital asset types, and deploying several accessibility tools for evaluating our digital content. We detail remediation strategies tailored to distinct asset types: correcting the most common web issues (insufficient color contrast, missing alternative text, unlabeled form elements, absent language tags, and keyboard navigation) by leveraging shared code and AI-assisted coding tools; a PowerPoint-based technique for converting complex geologic maps into accessible PDFs; producing accessible alternative publications; and generating transcripts and captions for KGS YouTube videos and the KGS podcast, The Big Blue Rock Pod. 

Equally central was developing KGS staff buy-in. We delivered a series of three staff training workshops, built a shared library of accessible templates and resources, and established clear guidance for archived materials. Several lessons emerged from this work: compliance follows culture, progress matters more than perfection (especially for complex assets like maps), human assistance should always be easy to find, and accessibility is a sustained effort rather than a one-time project. The KGS experience offers a transferable model for other geoscience organizations to make their digital assets accessible to all users.

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