The Real Reason Local Governments Are Facing More ADA Non-Compliance Fines

Your community would never consider building a new office building without installing a wheelchair-accessible ramp. Nor would you not allow a visually impaired child to be accompanied by their seeing-eye dog during an afternoon recreation activity. For all of the accommodations that your local government enforces for the approximate 19 percent of residents living with a disability or physical impairment, why should accessibility and inclusion stop when a resident moves from interacting in the physical world to the digital world?

Today, more than ever, local governments are meeting the expectations of digitally-minded residents by providing more digital self-service solutions. The days of walking into city hall to obtain a building permit or dog license are being replaced with mobile-responsive online form submissions and CRM tools that can turn an X into a service request. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also evolves as technology and resident engagement interactions evolve.

Examples of High-Risk Non-Compliance

In 2017, a refresh to Section 508 of the ADA expanded the public sector compliance guidelines for digital resident communications. While Section 508 of the ADA points public entities to the Web Content Accessibility Guideline’s (WCAG 2.0) detailed sections A and AA as established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) criteria to determine accessibility compliance, municipalities wondering at a glance where they stand should ask themselves the following questions:

• Are live streaming or recorded videos of public proceedings available with closed captioning functionality for the deaf and hard of hearing?
• Does the website auto-play videos that a user with a vision impairment or physical disability cannot control?
• Does the website include brightly flashing animations that may put an individual with a neurological disorder at risk of experiencing a seizure?
• Are layered or juxtaposed colors of a high enough contrast to be discernible to colorblind individuals?
• Are the website’s images saved with descriptive alt tags that would describe them in detail to an individual utilizing a screen reader?

>>For a more detailed assessment of your website’s current accessibility risk, this checklist outlines WCAG A and AA criteria.

The Financial Implications of Non-Compliance

The consequences of digital ADA non-compliance can be costly. Entities may be fined up to $75,000 for an initial ADA violation and $150,000 for subsequent violations. While some city and county governments have moved quickly to enhance their digital offerings to meet WCAG 2.0 A and AA guidelines, many others have not. For public institutions that exist to serve residents equally, the lack of accommodations in the digital sphere has been met with understandable resident resistance and growing legal actions.

An Increase in Municipal ADA Compliance Lawsuits

Any municipality that believes its non-compliance cannot put it at risk of financial penalties —regardless of its jurisdiction and its associated laws — should know that lawsuits associated with digital ADA compliance arise across the country. Since 2011, more than 142 municipalities have been sued based on accessibility non-compliance. Federal lawsuits are on the rise as well, with the number of federal website accessibility lawsuits nearly tripling in 2018 compared to the year prior, to 2,258 suits. Municipalities are not only vulnerable to lawsuits from residents who are seeking fair access. According to many reports, serial plaintiffs browse the Internet, seeking violations in various public and private sector industries. Recently, municipalities have become easy targets for those searching for violations and seeking injunctive relief and even monetary damages.

So far, in early 2019, a significant number of municipalities in Florida, specifically, have come under attack, a growing trend that began in 2018. For example, a legally blind Miami resident has filed nearly 200 lawsuits in Florida and across the country because government agencies and private sector entities violate the ADA by not taking steps to ensure that documents on their websites are accessible. In October 2018, Orange County, Florida, settled a lawsuit filed by the resident, agreeing to make all the information on its websites accessible to individuals with vision disabilities by 2022. The municipality also agreed to pay the plaintiff $19,000 without admitting wrongdoing to cover legal fees and damages. The Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller’s office also settled a lawsuit with the same plaintiff for $9,500 over its county website. Martin County, Florida, reached a $16,000 settlement with the plaintiff in July, and  St. Lucie County settled for $10,500. The list goes on.

Minimizing Exposure Without Solving the Problem

As a stop-gap measure to protect themselves from lawsuits, some municipalities have begun removing content that they believe may not be accessible. For example, the cities of Lake Mary, Longwood, and Oviedo, Florida, have reportedly temporarily removed public documents from their websites to protect themselves from ADA lawsuits. While this may help minimize their exposure to the types of red flag content that plaintiffs and their lawyers can quickly identify as accessibility violations, it does not address local governments’ actual need and responsibility to provide equitable access to content for their community.

Other municipalities have taken the steps necessary to improve their website’s accessibility. For example, the City of Portsmouth, VA, wanted to ensure the highest level of digital access for all its residents.

“We are here to serve all the citizens of the City of Portsmouth,” said Daniel Jones, City of Portsmouth Chief Information Officer. “That includes citizens who are technology-advanced, citizens who are less familiar with digital media, and citizens who rely on assistive technology devices to consume digital media. We believe all citizens should have access to our City’s resources, so while we were watching the conversations regarding ADA compliance as it was impacting federal websites, we reached out to our CivicPlus account manager to ask if there was an integrated solution that could be incorporated into our current platform.”

>>Click here to read the full story about the City of Portsmouth’s approach to accessibility. for the-city-of-portsmouth-va-implements-civicengage-audioeye-accessibility-solution

Why Don’t More Municipalities Voluntarily Comply With Section 508?

Why aren’t more communities taking the same approach as the City of Portsmouth and proactively complying with ADA standards? There are three common reasons why more municipalities hesitate to become ADA-compliant, even at the risk of financial penalties.

1. Perceived High Website Redesign Costs

One cause of hesitancy for some municipalities is the perceived cost of a website redesign to enable compliant content and functionality. However, compared with the potential of penalty fines and legal costs, any cost savings associated with a delayed redesign can be null and void.

2. They Didn’t Choose a CMS Partner With Accessibility Expertise

To produce a municipal website that provides the kind of self-service functionality that today’s digitally-minded residents expect, local governments should partner with a website provider that offers a product designed exclusively to meet local governments’ functionality and administrative maintenance needs. They should also choose a local government website provider with proven expertise in digital ADA compliance. The first step toward compliance is to design a website that follows accessibility best practices. The second step is maintaining compliance with content updates, leading to the third common reason for non-compliance.

3. Limited Resources

At a time when local governments are more budget and resource-strapped than ever, some administrations believe they lack the staffing needed to implement accessible content and keep future digital updates compliant. What many fail to realize, however, is that modern and affordable accessibility remediation software exists to help content management teams maintain compliant content through the use of such functionality as automatic alt tagging and integrated tools that allow individual users to make page appearance adjustments to address their individual accessibility needs.

The best way to avoid the risk of penalty fines and legal costs is to comply with ADA requirements proactively. Local governments committed to enabling civic participation and building relationships with informed voters should want to enable all residents to easily consume online information and resources and utilize digital self-service tools. Humboldt County, California, is a community committed to ensuring accessibility and has successfully leveraged its Municipal Websites Central site and integrated AudioEye remediation solution to elevate its website’s accessibility.

“IT has several internal goals,” said Jim Storm, IT Division Director for the Humboldt County Information Technology Division. “Strive to keep current with technology, ensure reliable systems, and provide excellent customer service. With CivicPlus our website is optimized for efficiency, and we have a collocated geographically diverse data center and 24-7-365 support. We also wanted to be a leader among California Counties in web accessibility. When CivicPlus presented the opportunity to be one of its first clients to work with AudioEye, we tested its accessibility tools and features and realized AudioEye could help us get to the next level with its commitment to accessibility and digital inclusion.”

After successfully implementing the AudioEye automated remediation solution, the County continues to monitor and manage the accessibility of its content, relying on its AudioEye automated remediation solutions as the foundation for its compliance strategy.

“We plan to continue working with our web editors, our community, CivicPlus, and AudioEye to locate and remediate accessibility issues,” said Michael Tjoelker, Web Accessibility Coordinator and Webmaster for the County of Humboldt. “We are also continuing automated accessibility checks, weekly reports on new issues that are found, and staying up-to-date with the newest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.”

Conclusion

The proliferation of ADA non-compliance lawsuits targeting municipalities exposes more local governments to financial risks. Still, it also underscores a need for accessibility compliance to help achieve responsible, equitable government. If you and your staff still need to assess your compliance status, consider exploring WCAG best practices. You can receive a free website accessibility scan and customized compliance report through AudioEye.