Remote and hybrid work run on digital tools: video meetings, chat, shared documents, online forms, whiteboards and case management systems. When those tools are not accessible, some employees are shut out of work they are fully able to do, and some people DHS serves are shut out of services. Accessibility in remote work is not an extra. It is the ground everything else stands on.
Minnesota has a statewide standard. Minnesota IT Services explains that the State of Minnesota Digital Accessibility Standard applies to state agencies' information technology and incorporates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at level AA, currently version two point one. MNIT also notes that Minnesota law in the Minnesota Human Rights Act, sections 363A.42 and 363A.43, can make agencies financially liable for inaccessible public records and course materials. That means accessibility is part of how state work is supposed to be produced, not a courtesy offered on request.
It helps to separate two things. Building accessibility in means making shared tools and documents usable by as many people as possible from the start: headings and alt text in documents, readable slides, captions in meetings, color that is not the only way information is conveyed, forms that work with a keyboard and screen reader, and chat tools that do not rely only on emoji or images to carry meaning. Individual accommodation means providing something specific for one person, such as particular assistive technology, a sign language interpreter or a modified schedule. Accommodations go through the supervisor, HR and the agency ADA coordinator. Building accessibility in reduces how often people need to ask, but it does not replace the accommodation process.
Common barriers in remote work are predictable. Whiteboard tools may not work with screen readers. Scanned documents are often images with no readable text. Video meetings without captions exclude people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and help many others. Rapid, overlapping chat can be hard to follow for people using assistive technology. A short checklist, using the accessibility checkers built into common office software and asking colleagues what works for them, catches most problems. For questions about specific tools, contact your agency's accessibility or MNIT resources.
