Accessibility Industry Update: July Edition
Welcome to QualityLogic’s monthly accessibility industry update, reviewing key events from June 2024. In this month’s edition, we’ll help you understand what’s new and touch on a few more topics we believe to be of interest.
From the Department of Justice ruling on web accessibility in the United States, to the European Accessibility Act (EAA), Accessible Canada Act (ACA), not to mention non-stop talk about provincial and state-level requirements, it seems like this year has been a whirlwind of legal accessibility updates. Not to be left out, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made a number of amendments to Section 504 regulations. Meanwhile, the governor of Colorado officially signed an extension to their accessibility legislation, but not just for everyone.
Legal updates
Amendments to U.S. Section 504
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a rule prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in all health and human service programs, with massive implications for the healthcare sector.
What is Section 504?
Section 504 is a component of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which states that “no qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall be excluded from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service.”
The part about “any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” is important, as it includes anything from patient portals used by hospitals to colleges and universities that accept federal student loan payments.
What is changing?
Verbiage has been added to address negative stereotypes and biases on people with disabilities which could have an adverse impact on medical decisions. Also, it adopts the U.S. Access Board’s Medical Diagnostic Equipment (MDE) Accessibility Standards, outlining a framework to ensure that implements like weight scales, exam tables, equipment to aid in the transfer from mobility aids, and more work satisfactorily for everyone.
Of relevance to web accessibility, any program or activity that receives funding from the HHS now must ensure that mobile applications and websites comply with version 2.1 of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) at Level AA – closely mirroring recently announced DOJ Title II regulations. In fact, the process of becoming compliant is nearly the same.
When?
The rule goes into effect on July 8, 2024. Compliance deadlines depend on the number of people employed by the organization in question:
- 15 or more employees: within two years of the date of publication (May 2026)
- Less than 15 employees: within three years of the date of publication (May 2027)
Exceptions
- Pre-existing social media posts
- Archived web content
- Content posted on the organization’s website by a third party, i.e., comments and reviews added by customers.
- Password-protected course content for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions
- Individualized password-protected documents
Further reading
You can get more information from the press release, fact sheet, or you can sift through the rule (from the federal register). Note that the rule is quite large, so you will likely wish to start reading at Section 84.82 (application) under Subpart I.
The Extension on Colorado’s HB 24-1454 Bill is Now Official
On Friday May 24, Colorado Governor Jared Polis extended the deadline by which state and public agencies need to comply with the state’s new digital accessibility law. Organizations that have demonstrated a “good faith” effort to resolve outstanding accessibility related complaints and establish a compliance program are eligible for the extension, as long as they publish progress-to-date reports to their front-facing homepages. These reports should be updated quarterly.
More information may be found in the 2024a_1454_signed PDF.
Additional Reading
- Tech Writing for Accessibility self-study Course – Google for Developers
- The Supreme Court’s Latest Gun Ruling—And Why it May Affect Web Accessibility – Converge Accessibility
- Fine-tuning Text Inputs: Or how to make forms a whole lot better.
- Workplace discrimination: another terrible thing Windows Recall might enable – Eric Bailey
- Ireland Web Accessibility: Everything You Need To Know (Forbes)
- EEOC Sues PepsiCo for Failing to Accommodate and Firing a Blind Employee – U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Accommodations vs Accessibility: Building Truly Inclusive Workplaces From Day One – Branch News
- Deadline for digital accessibility moves up – Inside Iowa State for faculty and staff: For an inside look at how higher-ed institutions are adapting to the new Title II requirements
- Presidential debate: 90 disability organizations call on CNN to improve accessibility – 19thnews.org