Agencies can’t ‘contract away’ DOJ web standards compliance, state officials say

While providing an update Tuesday on how the final accessibility rules for the web and mobile applications of state and local governments issued by the U.S. Department of Justice will impact state agencies, Georgia’s top IT and accessibility officials said agencies can’t rely on vendors to “contract away” their compliance responsibilities.

“State and local entities cannot contract away their responsibilities under the new final rule. Therefore, state and local government entities are responsible for third parties acting on behalf of acting on their behalf as they carry out the entities’ programs, services and activities,” Stacey Peace, Georgia’s state ADA coordinator, said during the webinar.

Peace’s comments were made during a “GovChats” webinar hosted by Access Georgia, a joint initiative that started in 2012 and is led by the Georgia Technology Authority, the state’s accessibility team, the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission and the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation at Georgia Tech. Part of the group’s purpose is to support Georgia state agencies with resources to implement information and communication technology accessibility — or ICT accessibility — standards for state employees and residents with disabilities.

While the DOJ’s new rules regarding websites and mobile applications will not go into effect until 2026 for larger governments and agencies — and even later for smaller entities — the state’s top accessibility official said IT and procurement departments will need to consider these new rules when entering into new contracts leading up to the effective date.

“This may require working with your contractors and your vendors or your volunteers or whoever to help ensure they understand these requirements,” Peace continued during the webinar. “And you make sure that if you’re seeking out a contractor or a vendor to provide something, that they have an understanding of the requirements.”

The DOJ’s new digital accessibility rules apply to all state and local government agencies; special purpose districts such as school, water and transportation authorities; and entities such as nonprofits that run programs on behalf of government agencies. The far-reaching technical standards rely on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which were published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium in 2018. The WCAG 2.1 guidelines, as they’re referred to, are a leading standard for web accessibility.

“This significant change requires a coordinated effort by all public entities to ensure the accessibility of their information and communication technology,” Peace said.

Johan Rempel, a UX/ICT quality assurance manager with the Georgia Tech center who is involved with Access Georgia, said during the webinar that the WCAG 2.1 guidelines can get “fairly complex fairly quickly.” But of the 3,000 pages that would comprise the guidelines, Rempel said the rules are primarily driven by the POUR principles, an acronym WCAG lays out that entities can use to ensure they’re meeting the accessibility standards.

“As Stacey mentioned, you can’t contract your way out of these responsibilities,” Rempel said. “This is going to put added pressure on those third-party vendors, those companies that provide services to local and state governments to make sure that they are compliant and plan for future sustainability. This isn’t a quick one-off. … The goal here is to make sure that you’re compliant within that two to three year window, but you want to stay compliant.”

Rempel said agencies can use POUR — perceivable, operable, understandable and robust — to guide their implementations of accessibility features. “[But] accessibility is a journey,” he said. “It’s not a final destination.”

He added that it’s worth the investment because retrofitting digital workflows for web and mobile applications with accessible features can be costly later on. To avoid such costs, Rempel urged agencies to create accessibility roadmaps, develop a standardized accessibility policies and incorporate disability awareness and accessibility trainings.

“We want you to walk away with some concrete steps and knowledge on how to tackle this, because it can be overwhelming if, especially if your particular organization or agency has has not embarked on the accessibility path at all,” Rempel said. “You don’t all need to be programmers or developers, but having a basic knowledge of what’s in Title II [of the ADA] and what that means from a web and mobile accessibility standpoint, everybody really should have a basic understanding of that.”

Peace added that as state agencies undertake the effort to make their digital assets compliant with the DOJ rules, they should reach out to the Access Georgia group for assistance.

“We are here to help, and our first priority is to assist state of Georgia agencies and not to admonish them,” she said. “So we’re here to help. Don’t worry about sharing things with us that may not be the best thing that you’ve ever shared about your agency.”