Login | September 08, 2024
DOJ publishes final website accessibility rules
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: May 24, 2024
The US Department of Justice recently published final website accessibility rules for government entities under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The rules, while written for the government, also may apply to private entities under some circumstances.
Under this Final Rule, the covered entities will be required to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1, Level A and AA success criteria as the technical standard for websites and mobile apps that can be accessed by the public.
These technical requirements can be found here: https://www.ada.gov/notices/2024/03/08/web-rule/. There are numerous technical criteria for text, sounds, images, controls and animations that appear digitally on websites and in apps.
Affected websites will generally have two to three years to comply in recognition of the amount of time that it takes developers to change their underlying code.
There are a number of exceptions, including archived web content, preexisting conventional electronic documents, certain third-party content and pre-existing social media posts.
The new rule covers governmental entities, as well as private developers’ websites and apps created for the government.
For instance, an example in the new rule is a developer who creates an app for parking in a city’s municipal lots.
Such an app has to conform to WCAG 2.1, Level A and AA even if that app is run by a private business.
And new government websites have to conform to the new rule even if they are created by a private entity.
So even this new propagation isn’t so new, since WCAG 2.1 isn’t the latest iteration of the accessibility guidelines.
That would be WCAG version 2.2.
The new DOJ rule makes it clear that it is a minimum rule and that states will have the power to require developers under this rule to conform to Version 2.2 (like Colorado does, for instance).
Other than that, though, the rule pre-empts any other state rules.
Next up might be the DOJ requiring private entities to conform to WCAG 2.1 (or 2.2) under Title III of the ADA.
So if you represent an app developer, you should familiarize yourself with the new rule in case that happens.
Thanks for the analysis from the firm Reed Smith.