Advocacy roundtable on Justice Department's ADA website and app accessibility proposed rule for state and local governments

The Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require state and local governments to meet certain accessibility standards for services, programs, and activities offered via web or mobile apps. Cities have the opportunity to participate in an upcoming briefing on September 14 on the changes and/or let AWC know how the proposed rule may impact your city.

Summary of the proposed rulemaking

DOJ is revising its regulations under title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Department proposes adopting an internationally recognized accessibility standard for web access, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, as the technical standard for web content and mobile app accessibility under title II of the ADA.

Some of these requirements include making websites and mobile applications understandable by screen readers or other assistive technologies. Other technical standards include adding alt text (text descriptions of images and navigational links that facilitate using a screen reader). The proposal would also require captions on all videos and audio files on local government websites. A full description of the proposed requirements can be found on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2) Overview.

Proposed exempted content includes:

1. Archived web content;
2. Preexisting conventional electronic documents;
3. Web content posted by third parties on a public entity's website;
4. Third-party web content linked from a public entity's website;
5. Course content on a public entity's password-protected or otherwise secured website for admitted students enrolled in a specific course offered by a public postsecondary institution;
6. Class or course content on a public entity's password-protected or otherwise secured website for students enrolled, or parents of students enrolled, in a specific class or course at a public elementary or secondary school; and
7. Conventional electronic documents that are about a specific individual, their property, or their account and that are password-protected or otherwise secured.

DOJ is proposing different compliance dates by population size of the public entity:

Comments on the proposed rule are due on October 3, 2023.

• Read a summary of the proposal.
• Read the fact sheet on this proposal.
• Read the proposed rule and submit comments.
• Read the Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis.
• Advocacy contact: Send an email to Janis Reyes at Janis.Reyes@sba.gov.

Join the roundtable meeting

Small business roundtable meeting on the Justice Department’s ADA accessibility rule for state and local governments
Thursday, September 14 | 10 am – 12 pm PST

RSVP to Janis Reyes at Janis.Reyes@sba.gov.

Roundtable agenda:

1. Introductory remarks: (Janis Reyes, Assistant Chief Counsel, SBA Office of Advocacy) DOJ officials will provide a briefing and overview of this proposed rule. After the briefing, the agency will be in listening mode. Comments expressed during this roundtable do not take the place of submitting written comments to the regulatory docket. Comments on this proposal are due to DOJ on October 3, 2023.
2. Input from interested small entities: The Regulatory Flexibility Act covers small governmental jurisdictions with a population of less than 50,000. This includes cities, counties, towns, townships, villages, school districts, special districts, and public community colleges. Advocacy seeks feedback on the current ADA accessibility of small entities' websites and mobile apps, and the economic impact of this rule on small entities. Advocacy would appreciate any feedback on regulatory alternatives that may minimize the costs of this rule.

Note: Roundtable meetings are open to all interested persons and are intended to facilitate an open and frank discussion about issues of interest to small business. These meetings are off the record and not intended for press purposes. Direct quotations of presenters or attendees may not be used without direct written approval of the person(s) making the statement. All press inquiries should be sent to chandler.baxter@sba.gov. Agendas and presentations are available to everyone.

Provide AWC with information on expected impacts

The National League of Cities (NLC) will be providing comments on the impacts of the proposed rule. To assist the response, AWC wants to know how this change will impact cities:

• Is your city’s web content already compliant with the proposed standard (WCAG 2.1) already?
• Where are the gaps? How close are you to compliance?
• How much would it cost for your city to comply with these new standards? As much detail as you can provide about startup costs as well as ongoing expenses would be appreciated. For example, "A city with a population of approximately 65,000 shared that the initial cost to reach compliance would be $XX, with an anticipated ongoing annual cost of $XX."
• Do you believe the compliance timeline is reasonable for your community? If not, is there a different timeline that would be manageable that we could propose?
• Are there specific forms of assistance, technical or otherwise, that the federal government could provide to make the compliance burden less for your community?
• Are there other issues that advocacy staff should be aware of?

Please send your feedback to Katherine Walton at katherinew@awcnet.org.