Act 1227 of 1999 required the Maine Department of Information Systems to develop Non-visual Standards for Maine that ensures the needs of Maine who are blind or visually impaired are met through reasonable accommodation in the information technology products and services of the state. Information technology products and services include data, voice, and video technologies, as well as information dissemination methods such as the Internet.

In essence, this means that Maine Government or state funded entities must have websites that are equally accessible to blind or visually impaired visitors. For instance, websites must provided text equivalents for all non-text elements such as images, animation, audio and video. We will make every effort to comply with these new guidelines on the State of Maine website.

For more information about IT policies and standards in Maine, link to the State of Maine Strategic Information Technology Plan. For the specific information regarding web development and accessibility issues, link to W3C Web Content Guidelines or the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST).

Access Keys

The below table lists the access keys that can be used as Keyboard Shortcuts throughout the portal to access specific pages.

On the keyboard use the corresponding combination to bring focus on the respective link. Hit enter to go to the corresponding page. If the access key is assigned to a button, using the access key will directly activate the button.