WEB ACCESSIBILITY AND THE ADA

On Feb. 18, the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also known as the U.S. AccessBoard), publicly released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to update accessibility requirements forinformation and communication technology (ICT) under both Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section508), 29 U.S.C. § 794d, and Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934 (Section 255), 47 U.S.C. § 255. Publiccomments will be accepted for 90 days following the date of publication in the Federal Register.

With respect to websites and for electronic content generally, the NPRM incorporates by reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, and requires compliancewith Success Criteria Levels A and AA.

Although the guidelines issued under Section 508 are not directly applicable under titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the DOJ has indicated it will issue NPRMs later this year under titles II and III of the ADAto address accessibility requirements for websites. DOJ is widely anticipated to similarly adopt WCAG 2.0 and require compliance with Success Criteria Levels A and AA.