Portland Water District is committed to providing a website that is accessible to everyone. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to Universal Design principles and version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Measures to Support Accessibility

We take the following measures to ensure accessibility of the Portland Water District website:

  • Employ formal accessibility quality assurance methods.

Conformance Status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. Portland Water District is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level A. 

WCAG is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. WCAG 2.1 applies broadly to various current and future Web technologies, and is testable with a combination of automated testing and human evaluation.

Compatibility with Browsers and Assistive Technology

The Portland Water District website is not compatible with:

  • Browsers older than 3 major versions
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Mobile operating systems older than 3 years

Technical Specifications

Accessibility of the Portland Water District website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assertive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • SMIL

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

Certain third party tools have been implemented for the operation of the website. We are utilizing the following CMS and templates and are limited by the accessibility standards offered by these templates. 

  • WordPress
  • Kadence

In addition at time of writing we rely upon the following plugins and add-on software to operate the site, and are similarly bound to their accessibility standards.

  • Gravity Forms
  • Kadence Blocks – PRO
  • Kadence Pro
  • Splide Carousel
  • Yoast SEO

We have made reasonable effort to resolve any accessibility issues brought on by these tools, but are unable to guarantee full conformance for any future updates or inherent limitations brought on by these tools. Please contact us for a full list of known limitations.

Assessment Approach

We assess the accessibility of the Portland Water District website through ongoing research and external evaluations and implement accessibility improvements accordingly. We have employed experts proficient in accessible web design and development practices to conduct automated and manual testing methods. The last automated accessibility scan was performed using the Google Lighthouse Platform on 7/18/2025. Updates to the content management system, its plugins, and/or website content proceeding this date have the potential to affect the level of compliance reached. 

Feedback

We welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you encounter any barriers or have trouble accessing information.

Customer Service Number: (207) 761-8310
Walk-in address: 225 Douglass Street, Portland, ME 04104
Hours of availability/operation:

  • Lobby Hours: 8 a.m. – noon, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
  • Phone Line hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday

This statement was last updated on 7/18/2025