League Submits Comments on Department of Justice Proposed Website and Mobile Application 可访问性 Rules for Local Governments

Proposed rules would establish new standards for state and local governmental entities to make their websites and mobile applications accessible, but concerns remain regarding compliance costs and liability.

The Civil Rights Division within the U.S. Department of Justice published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to require greater accessibility standards for state and local government websites and mobile applications, revising existing guidelines under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

拟议的规则

拟议的规则 would adopt the Web Content 可访问性 Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA级 standard for all states and local units of government. The new standards include making websites and mobile applications and the content within them readable by assistive technology in addition to requiring text descriptions of images and navigational links, as well as captioning of videos and audio files on websites.

The rules also create technical requirements to ensure accessibility of mobile applications that a state or local government makes available to the public to access services, 项目, 或活动.

Implementation of the proposed rule will be staggered based on population size:

• Public entities with a total population of 50,000 or more must comply with this standard in two years after the publication of this rule.
• Small public entities with a population of less than 50,000 would have three years to comply with these requirements.

Leagues submits comments

While the goal of greater accessibility for all members of the public is shared by the League, concerns remain regarding the cost of compliance especially for smaller, less-resourced城市, burdensome requirements for updating archived web content, and liability risks for public entities.

Despite proposing seven limited exceptions for archived web content, 电子文档, third-party web content, class and course content, and certain conventional 电子文档, the League filed comments raising several concerns on behalf of member cities.

In its comments to the Department of Justice Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the League cited these concerns and encouraged the department to create additional flexibilities for local units of government by:

• Extending the compliance period for the rule.
• Exempting archived web content.
• Creating liability protections for cities working toward compliance.

The concerns cited by the League were echoed by the National League of Cities as well as the Small Business Administration’s Office of 宣传 among other stakeholders.

接下来是什么

With the comment period now 关闭d, the Department of Justice will consider modifications to the proposed rulemaking. The League will continue to keep member cities apprised of the proposed rules and will also continue to work with the state and federal government to ensure cities have the resources and training to provide accessible information through their websites and mobile applications.

Read the League’s comments to the Department of Justice Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (pdf).

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