Content contributors: Greg Schwarz, Digital Accessibility Analyst, MNIT Office of Accessibility; Stephanie Waegener, Digital Accessibility Analyst, MNIT Office of Accessibility

As the State of Minnesota’s Office of Accessibility, we provide training, guidance, and other resources to help every state agency make their digital content and products accessible. But sometimes there is a reason to have something inaccessible. 

Some reasons to have an inaccessible primary version include: 

• Content using new technologies or methods that don’t yet have accessibility guidance. 

• Visual content such as color-based content for educational or historical purposes. 

• Accessibility training content where the goal is to identify inaccessible elements. 

• An official version of a document that must include something inherently inaccessible like a watermark. 

This is where alternate versions are important. Even if the primary version of your content needs to be, for example, sound-based and thus disruptive to screen based reader users, they should easily be able to navigate to a usable version of the content from your primary version. Everyone should be able to access your content regardless of what technology they use to do so. 

If possible, make your primary content accessible. For example, adding detailed text description of a site’s inaccessible images. The less work people have to put in to access the content, the more positive their experience will be.

For more information, read the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Group note on Conforming Alternate Versions. 

If you have any accessibility issues with a state agency site, you can use the Report an Accessibility Issue form. If you experience difficulty navigating or using a required training or other resources necessary for your job, contact your organization’s ADA coordinator for an accommodation.