MassGIS, the Commonwealth's Office of Geographic Information, is committed to achieving meaningful accessibility to this online environment for all users, including users with disabilities.

We follow specific Commonwealth enterprise standards, Enterprise Web Accessibility Standards, designed to meet the needs of our citizens with disabilities. The Commonwealth enterprise standards are generally based on standards used by the Federal government for technology accessibility for people with disabilities, and web content accessibility guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For more information about the Federal standards, please visit the Section 508 web site (http://www.section508.gov) or the Federal Access Board web site (http://www.access-board.gov). For more information about the W3C guidelines, please visit their web site (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT). The MassGIS web site is regularly tested using leading web accessibility technologies and reviewed by users to verify that this web site is compliant with applicable standards.

About Portable Document Format (PDF)

Some documents on this web site are produced in Portable Document Format (PDF). Efforts are currently underway to ensure that all files are produced using the latest version of Acrobat (file conversion software for PDFs), which is the most accessible technology currently available for these types of files. In order to improve viewing of these files, please download the latest version of Adobe Reader^TM, which is available for free at the Adobe web site (http://get.adobe.com/reader/).

However, recognizing that even this version does not always work for all users, alternative accessible formats are provided wherever possible, most commonly through a text or an HTML file.

Because of their visual, interactive and dynamic nature, geospatial related maps and data in particular pose challenges to full accessibility due to the current design of software applications. For example, navigation tools like panning and zooming require the use of a mouse. Also, screen readers are not able to accurately describe the full content of a map generated in an on-the-fly and dynamic manner. The issue of accessibility and GIS is a concern to MassGIS and other organizations providing such content over the Web, and various research projects are investigating alternative methods of accessing geographic information online. MassGIS hopes to implement new practical methods and technologies as they emerge.

Note (12/29/08): There have been comments recently in the blogosphere that suggest that MassGIS is a recent convert to open source software. The statement that MassGIS has "gone over to open source GIS" does not correctly represent what we are doing at MassGIS. We have been using open source products in our web mapping services software stack for many years. In the past couple of years we have added Geoserver to that stack and, most recently, we were pleased to add support services from OpenGeo to replace what we used to do internally. Certainly our use of Geoserver has allowed us to improve performance and expand capacity without increasing costs. However, MassGIS also continues to use proprietary software in delivering our web mapping services. Our choice of software takes into account a variety of factors. The first and most important factor is what best meets our needs while also, of course, factoring in cost. Second is what level of disruption and cost is involved in shifting away from an existing software choice. A seemingly obvious choice of a lower-cost equally functional alternative can look less attractive after you factor in the "cost" of disruptions and added stress on limited staff resources.

If any file format prevents you from accessing the information, please contact us for assistance. In order to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please note the nature of your accessibility concern, the format in which you prefer to receive the material, the web page address of the requested material, and the best way to contact you.

We also welcome your questions about this accessibility statement and comments on how to improve the site's accessibility.

Please contact us by mail:
  MassGIS
  One Ashburton Place, Room 1601
  Boston, MA 02108

By phone: 617-619-5611

or by email: paul.nutting@state.ma.us