As part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2024, one of the topics we want to cover is the new ADA rule on the accessibility of web content and mobile apps. This is important for our customers in the United States of America. This is an opportunity to review the accessibility and quality of your web content and mobile apps, to make sure you’re delivering accessible services the right way by enabling everyone to access them.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination. For the first time since the ADA was launched, on April 24th 2024, a new rule launched for technical requirements to now exist for applying ADA to web content and mobile applications. The Federal Register published the Department of Justice’s (Department) final rule and updated its regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments to make sure that their services, programs, and activities that they offer online and through mobile apps are accessible to people with disabilities*1.
The final rule has specific requirements about how to ensure that web content and mobile applications are accessible to people with disabilities. We outline more detail on the requirements in this blog.
The new rule applies to organizations in the United States of America that are covered under Title II of the ADA. This includes state and local governments, including public schools and universities who need to ensure that their services, programs, and activities are accessible to people with disabilities.
For the organizations mentioned above, their web content and mobile apps (when they are not subject to the rule’s exceptions) must conform to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA.
It is worth noting that there are different deadlines for conformance depending on the size of your organization.
The rule does have exceptions where the technical requirements don’t apply.
For detailed information about the exceptions, visit ADA’s fact sheet.
State and local governments provide important and sometimes critical services to the public. When websites or mobile apps containing important information aren’t accessible, this creates barriers for people with disabilities. For tasks such as getting tax information, making payments e.g. for garbage collection or tax, to participating in community events such as town hall meetings, if web content and mobile apps aren’t accessible this prevents people from accessing these services.
The rule is not only there to improve digital services for everyone, but is there to provide clearer rules for state and local governments to comply with ADA.
If you weren’t aware, Jadu is on a mission to become the world’s most accessible digital platform. As part of our mission, we are focusing on the message that while there are new/updated laws, legislation and guidelines, accessibility is about doing the right thing for everyone. Whilst this blog focuses on the new rule, we want to remind everyone that accessibility is all about the end user. If you want to learn more about our mission or our accessibility services, get in touch.
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