Starting in April, a new regulation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will go into effect. It will require state and local governments and public universities to make their digital content accessible. Here’s Jan Garrett, from the Pacific ADA Center. They provide technical support to help organizations meet ADA requirements.
“Being able to do anything from registering for a ticket to the county fair to paying our tax bill. All of these things have really evolved and become, you know, things that are online.”
Some of the changes they’ll have to make include providing image descriptions and closed captions. They’ll also have to make their digital content readable by text to speech software.
“People who have dyslexia or other reading types of disabilities benefit from using screen readers and other types of software in that realm. People who don't use a mouse, but use their keyboard to navigate. People who may not be able to type fast enough and who might time out on a website.”
These changes will benefit users with or without disabilities. There’s actually a term for that: It’s called universal design, which is when changes made to benefit people with disabilities end up helping everyone.
“Universal accessibility in the digital environment is that everyone deserves to be able to be in the digital environment and know what is happening and be able to do what they need to do there.”
The regulations apply to communities with 50,000 people or more. Smaller communities have until April 2027 to comply.
