Accessibility

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) continuously strives to make SBA.gov open to everyone. We work to make our website accessible to people with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities. Accessibility is an ongoing effort, and we seek solutions to improve our site by providing regular training for the employees creating our documents, writing our content, and building the functionality of our website.

We ensure the accessibility of SBA.gov by:

• Including accessibility in our internal policies
• Requiring our employees to publish accessible documents, including PDFs
• Using formal accessibility quality assurance methods in the development of the site
• Striving to do regular site audits to ensure we’re meeting Section 508 standards
• Providing continual accessibility training for our staff
• Creating content in plain language
• Integrating accessibility into our procurement practices

What laws and standards are we conforming to?

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is a law that requires any Information and Communication Technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by federal agencies to be accessible for people with disabilities. This includes websites like SBA.gov.

The U.S. Access Board established practical requirements for accessibility as part of Section 508. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are part of Section 508 requirements and lay out requirements for web designers and developers.

If you have trouble accessing any resources or content on this site, please send an email to 508complaints@sba.gov and include:

• A description of the problem and/or information that isn’t accessible
• The URL of the page the inaccessible content was found. A typical URL could be http://example.gov/index.html or https://www.example.gov/example
• The device and browser you are using to access SBA.gov
• The assistive technology you are using, if any
• The preferred format in which you want to receive any materials
• Your contact information (email, phone, or address)

For immediate help, call 202-205-6750.

For questions or comments about the accessibility of any SBA.gov content, email Janice MacLean, Section 508 Program Manager, at 508@sba.gov.

All other questions or comments about the SBA.gov website and SBA’s programs can be sent as indicated on our Contact page.

To file a formal complaint, please call 202-205-6750, or write us at:

SBA Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Civil Rights
409 3rd St. SW, Suite 6400
Washington, DC 20416

Accessibility of SBA.gov relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and assistive technologies/plugins installed on your computer:

• HTML
• WAI-ARIA
• CSS
• JavaScript

We rely on these technologies for accessibility conformance. SBA websites should be compatible with commonly used assistive technology, including screen readers, basic operating system screen magnifiers, and speech-recognition software.

Dial 711 to access TRS services.

A TRS communications assistant will then facilitate the call. You will use your text input device to give the assistant the phone number you’d like to reach. Please note that 711 access is not available for Captioned Telephone Service (CTS), Internet Protocol CTS, Video Relay Service (VRS), or Internet Protocol Relay Service (IP Relay Service).

For a detailed list of services supported via TRS, review the FCC TRS information page.

Background on 711

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted 711, instead of a 10-digit state-specific access number, to make using TRS as simple as possible.

TTY-based Telecommunications Relay Services have traditionally allowed people with hearing or speech disorders to use the telephone system via a teletypewriter (TTY) or other communication devices to call persons with or without similar disabilities. State or federal funds pay TRS providers – generally telephone companies –for the costs of providing these services. There is no cost to the TRS user.