The Department of Justice released a Supplemental Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking relating to website accessibility for state and local government entities – public entities. The proposal does not affect credit unions, but may be a harbinger of things to come.
The DOJ previously announced that they are reviewing requirements for websites, and plan on staggering proposed requirements. The first of these will apply to governmental agencies, followed by private and public services – including credit unions.
The DOJ is considering proposing WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 Level AA as the technical standard for public entity websites. WCAG 2.0 Level AA includes criteria that provide more comprehensive Web accessibility to individuals with disabilities—including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, developmental, learning, and neurological disabilities. In addition, Level AA conformance is widely used, indicating that it is generally feasible for Web developers to implement.
WCAG 2.0 has become the internationally recognized benchmark for Web accessibility. Several nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, have either adopted WCAG 2.0 as their standard for Web accessibility or developed standards based on WCAG 2.0. Within the United States, some States, including Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, and Minnesota, are also using WCAG 2.0 as their standard for Web accessibility. The Web accessibility standards in other States, such as California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas, are based on the section 508 standards (which are currently based on WCAG 1.0), and efforts are underway in at least one of these States to review and transition to WCAG 2.0.
WCAG 2.0 was designed to be “technology neutral” (i.e., it does not rely on the use of specific Web technologies) in order to accommodate the constantly evolving Web environment and to be usable with current and future Web technologies. WCAG 2.0 contains four principles that provide the foundation for Web accessibility. Under these four principles, there are 12 guidelines setting forth basic goals to ensure accessibility of Web sites.
Credit unions, or at least staff involved in website development and maintenance, should review the principles and guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/#intro-layers-guidance) and either begin, or plan on instituting these in their own websites.
NWCG can run a scan on the credit union’s website for accessibility and web standards validation. Just comment in the box below, and we will get it done for you.
