New accessibility requirements in the US are making it even more urgent for teams to educate themselves about what they can do to meet the needs of people with disabilities.

• WCAG Guidelines should be familiar to modern product teams, so what's new about these requirements?

• Accessibility audits on older sites might reveal an iceberg of issues. When do teams need to be ready to meet the updated guidelines?

• The internet is a big place. Do these new requirements apply to everyone or are they focused on specific websites and services?

I spent some time digging around ADA.gov to learn what these new requirements mean for designers and product teams. Take the deep dive yourself when you have a chance:
https://lnkd.in/gxCuvX6V

What

ADA Title II states that all state and local government websites need to meet the WCAG 2.1 Level A or AA accessibility guidelines. The new law will make sure that all public services are accessible to people with disabilities, including all programs, and activities offered online and through mobile apps.

When

It turns out the timeline for implementation is flexible based on the size of the local populations served. Jurisdictions with populations over 50K have two years while those with less than 50K have three years, with everyone needing to be compliant by 2027.

Who

It turns out that within state and local government, this includes not only municipal bodies such as state and local city departments but also entities like public schools, museums, and libraries. The last big note is that third-party software vendors and contractors who serve these entities are also on the hook (that probably means you too!)

As much as that might sound daunting, there are things you can start doing right now to get prepared:

Run an accessibility audit

You don’t know how much work you have to do until you take a look and see what’s really going on. A simple tool you can use to get a quick sense of things is the WAVE tool from WebAIM. This tool allows you to get a page-by-page snapshot of common accessibility issues.

Educate yourself and your team

The contents of an accessibility audit won’t make much sense until you level up your team to be able to process the severity of the issues you have and allow your team to think strategically about what to prioritize. A simple class that I encourage for newcomers is a free class from Google on Udacity.

Get expert advice from a consultant

Exygy has spent years developing our thoughtful process toward accessibility, which includes bringing in people with lived experience to provide their insights and expertise. We balance these partnerships with technical expertise to help you create a strategic roadmap. Get in touch and let’s get to work!