U.S. Department of Justice further delays ADA Title III rulemaking on website accessibility

Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Lexology

On Nov. 19, the federal government released its Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved its anticipated rulemaking regarding website accessibility under title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which pertains to places of public accommodation, to the “long-term action” list. Meanwhile, DOJ also announced that it expects to issue its title II Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on website accessibility in January 2016. In the accompanying Statements of Agency Priorities, DOJ states that it “believes that the title II web site accessibility rule will facilitate the creation of an important infrastructure for web accessibility that will be very important in [DOJ’s] preparation of the title III web site accessibility NPRM.” DOJ further indicated that it expects to publish the title III website accessibility NPRM during fiscal year 2018. (In its Spring Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, DOJ had delayed its title III NPRM from June 2015 until April 2016.)

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Related content:

• Litigation Expands as DOJ Delays Website Accessibility Rules (Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP)
• DOJ delays website accessibility regulations under Title III of the ADA until 2018 (Briggs and Morgan)

Justice Department Weighs Putting Web Sites Under Disability Rules

The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 28, 2010, 05:13 PM ET
By Marc Parry

The modern Internet did not exist when the Americans With Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990. Now the Justice Department is weighing changes to bring the landmark civil-rights law in line with the rise of the Web—a debate that could have implications for colleges.
The department this week announced that it is considering revising ADA regulations "to establish specific requirements for state and local governments and public accommodations to make their Web sites accessible to individuals with disabilities."
The announcement and call for public comment, preliminary as they are, drew celebration from WebAIM, an Internet-accessibility training and consulting nonprofit at Utah State University. Jonathan Whiting, the center's director of training and evaluation, described the move as "huge." Many colleges' digital materials are designed in a way that makes them difficult to use for people with disabilities, he says.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Justice-Department-Weighs/25854/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en