The Newly Proposed Updates to the Title II Regulations
About Web and Mobile App Accessibility:
What Are They, and How Can You Contribute?
Wednesday, August 30, 1-2:30pm Eastern/10-11:30am Pacific
Paul Grossman: Executive Counsel AHEAD; former Chief Civil Rights Attorney, OCR, San Francisco
Jamie Axelrod: Director, Disability Resources, Northern Arizona University; past President AHEAD
Sean Keegan: Director, Office of Digital Accessibility, Stanford University; past President of the Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN)
Laurie Vasquez: Faculty, Assistive Technology Specialist, Santa Barbara City College; CAPED representative on the Chancellor’s Office advisory committee on Distance Education
Ralph Black: Director, Disability Rights California; past General Counsel, California Community College System
The 504 Regulations were first implemented in 1978, and though much has changed in the world since then, the federal requirements for digital accessibility have not kept up. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has just announced new proposed regulations affecting web and mobile app accessibility for public institutions. Once final, these will become mandatory standards for digital access for those entities.
Before the proposed regulations become final, the DOJ provides a 60-day period for the general public to provide input about the proposed regs. This is your chance to have your voice heard in creating federal access requirements!
To give us all the opportunity to become well-informed commenters, on Wednesday, August 30, at 1 PM Eastern AHEAD is offering a free webinar, open to anyone, in which an expert panel will describe:
- What the proposed new mandatory default standard—WCAG 2.1 level AA—requires
- What is exempted from the default standard, what are the limits to those exemptions, and what might be required in the alternative
- Why the new proposed new standards apply only to public institutions, but why private institutions are likely to be impacted by these standards in the long run
- What is good about the proposed regulations, what’s not so good, and how they might be improved
- How to participate in the comment process to give AHEAD and the DOJ your input about the proposed changes
You may submit your comments in two ways:
You are encouraged to invite other campus colleagues involved with digital access, such as IT, procurement, alt media, instructional design/support, and others, to join this free webinar to learn about the upcoming changes to the regulations. A recording will be made available after the webinar for those who cannot attend live.
Just as it’s important to be an informed voter, it’s important to be an informed “commenter.” Register for the free webinar to hear from these knowledgeable experts, and then provide your feedback on the regulations!