Universal Accessibility Interest Group

Hello everyone,

As you've heard, in April 2024, the Department of Justice published new rules as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA). The deadline will be April 2026 or 2027 depending on service population. The rules covers public libraries, public schools, and public higher education so libraries across the country will be impacted by the new rules.

To help everyone understand what the new rules will mean for libraries, ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Accessibility Assembly will co-sponsor an online session with representatives from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in late-July/early-August. We'll send out an announcement once the date/time is finalized.

To prepare for this session, we need to know what questions you have about the new rules as the DOJ representatives can only respond to pre-submitted questions.

So read the DOJ's briefing on the new rule (and the full ADA rule pdf if desired), then send in any questions you have to this posting so we can submit the questions to our presenters.

Also, please feel free to email me at jerry.yarnetsky@miamioh.edu if you have any questions about the program or this need.

Many thanks!

Jerry Yarnetsky

Co-chair ALA's Accessibility Assembly

Web services librarian

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

PS - here are a few of the questions I have about the rule through the lens of a university library to prime the pump:

• If a university library hosts digital scholarship websites for faculty, do all the sites need to meet ADA standards even if they are not being used by university students? For example, if a creative writing professor's website is sharing their personal work to their professional community, but they are not using the site for their teaching.
• How will archiving websites work in practice? § 35.104(4) states the site "is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived." Does this mean a separate archive server or, if multiple servers are unavailable, can the entire site be clearly identified as archived by a banner notification across each page of the site for instance?
• Because a library's primary activity is research, would it be correct to say that older online research materials, such as academic journal articles, could not be exempt under the preexisting conventional electronic documents exemption because they are "used to ... gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities"?
• If a small press fails to make their electronic documents accessible by the deadline, but the content is required by an academic program, does the library still have to cut the resources or does the hardship clause allow for continued use?
• How would the electronic document exemption apply to archival material offered for research purposes by the university archives? For instance scans of early campus newspapers or early board of trustees records?

Hi Jerry, 

Thank you for sharing this call for questions. I've been following this closely, especially because many folks expect a similar update to title III in the near future, as well. I would love to know the answers to the all of the questions you pose- but the biggest questions for me are around how to classify library database collections. The rule makes it very clear that the responsibility is still ours, even though these are contracted / third party resources. I think it's fairly clear (but I'd love to know if I'm wrong!) that content (articles / books) published before the deadline in databases probably does not need to be fully compliant, but in all my reading of the rule, it wasn't clear if new content in databases after the deadline would need to be compliant. I'd love clarity on this because as we talk to our vendors, the clear expectation will be very helpful. Thank you!

Hello everyone,

As you've heard, in April 2024, the Department of Justice published new rules as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA). The deadline will be April 2026 or 2027 depending on service population. The rules covers public libraries, public schools, and public higher education so libraries across the country will be impacted by the new rules.

To help everyone understand what the new rules will mean for libraries, ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Accessibility Assembly will co-sponsor an online session with representatives from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in late-July/early-August. We'll send out an announcement once the date/time is finalized.

To prepare for this session, we need to know what questions you have about the new rules as the DOJ representatives can only respond to pre-submitted questions.

So read the DOJ's briefing on the new rule (and the full ADA rule pdf if desired), then send in any questions you have to this posting so we can submit the questions to our presenters.

Also, please feel free to email me at jerry.yarnetsky@miamioh.edu if you have any questions about the program or this need.

Many thanks!

Jerry Yarnetsky

Co-chair ALA's Accessibility Assembly

Web services librarian

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

PS - here are a few of the questions I have about the rule through the lens of a university library to prime the pump:

• If a university library hosts digital scholarship websites for faculty, do all the sites need to meet ADA standards even if they are not being used by university students? For example, if a creative writing professor's website is sharing their personal work to their professional community, but they are not using the site for their teaching.
• How will archiving websites work in practice? § 35.104(4) states the site "is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived." Does this mean a separate archive server or, if multiple servers are unavailable, can the entire site be clearly identified as archived by a banner notification across each page of the site for instance?
• Because a library's primary activity is research, would it be correct to say that older online research materials, such as academic journal articles, could not be exempt under the preexisting conventional electronic documents exemption because they are "used to ... gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities"?
• If a small press fails to make their electronic documents accessible by the deadline, but the content is required by an academic program, does the library still have to cut the resources or does the hardship clause allow for continued use?
• How would the electronic document exemption apply to archival material offered for research purposes by the university archives? For instance scans of early campus newspapers or early board of trustees records?

We'll absolutely get that into our question mix! Many thanks for the contribution!!!

Totally agree that this is a crux issue for libraries. Interestingly, after a few dives into the full regulation, I flip-flopped in opinion, but came to the opposite conclusion.

For what it's worth, here is my read (with the "I'm definitely not an attorney" acknowledgement that I could well be misreading the regulation). 

Section 35.201 (page 54 of the full regulation pdf) is the summary of the rule's Exceptions.

Subpart (c) says that third party content contributed "due to contractual, licensing, or other arrangements with the public entity" is not exempt so I'd take it that third-party databases are not exempt from the rule in general.

The previous subpart (b) states that preexisting conventional electronic documents (database article pdfs) available before the deadline are exempt, "unless such documents are currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities." (emphasis added)

I'm really curious how they want us to interpret that last chunk of the sentence. My read is that research is participating in a library's services and activities, thus all material used for research would have to be accessible down the line. 

There are a lot of great examples buried in the regulation's nearly 300 pages, but I don't quite find them illuminating enough, which is why I'm really looking forward to this session.

This should all be interesting!

Many thanks again!!!

Jerr

Hi Jerry, 

Thank you for sharing this call for questions. I've been following this closely, especially because many folks expect a similar update to title III in the near future, as well. I would love to know the answers to the all of the questions you pose- but the biggest questions for me are around how to classify library database collections. The rule makes it very clear that the responsibility is still ours, even though these are contracted / third party resources. I think it's fairly clear (but I'd love to know if I'm wrong!) that content (articles / books) published before the deadline in databases probably does not need to be fully compliant, but in all my reading of the rule, it wasn't clear if new content in databases after the deadline would need to be compliant. I'd love clarity on this because as we talk to our vendors, the clear expectation will be very helpful. Thank you!

Hello everyone,

As you've heard, in April 2024, the Department of Justice published new rules as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA). The deadline will be April 2026 or 2027 depending on service population. The rules covers public libraries, public schools, and public higher education so libraries across the country will be impacted by the new rules.

To help everyone understand what the new rules will mean for libraries, ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Accessibility Assembly will co-sponsor an online session with representatives from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in late-July/early-August. We'll send out an announcement once the date/time is finalized.

To prepare for this session, we need to know what questions you have about the new rules as the DOJ representatives can only respond to pre-submitted questions.

So read the DOJ's briefing on the new rule (and the full ADA rule pdf if desired), then send in any questions you have to this posting so we can submit the questions to our presenters.

Also, please feel free to email me at jerry.yarnetsky@miamioh.edu if you have any questions about the program or this need.

Many thanks!

Jerry Yarnetsky

Co-chair ALA's Accessibility Assembly

Web services librarian

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

PS - here are a few of the questions I have about the rule through the lens of a university library to prime the pump:

• If a university library hosts digital scholarship websites for faculty, do all the sites need to meet ADA standards even if they are not being used by university students? For example, if a creative writing professor's website is sharing their personal work to their professional community, but they are not using the site for their teaching.
• How will archiving websites work in practice? § 35.104(4) states the site "is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived." Does this mean a separate archive server or, if multiple servers are unavailable, can the entire site be clearly identified as archived by a banner notification across each page of the site for instance?
• Because a library's primary activity is research, would it be correct to say that older online research materials, such as academic journal articles, could not be exempt under the preexisting conventional electronic documents exemption because they are "used to ... gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities"?
• If a small press fails to make their electronic documents accessible by the deadline, but the content is required by an academic program, does the library still have to cut the resources or does the hardship clause allow for continued use?
• How would the electronic document exemption apply to archival material offered for research purposes by the university archives? For instance scans of early campus newspapers or early board of trustees records?

Hello everyone,

As you've heard, in April 2024, the Department of Justice published new rules as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA). The deadline will be April 2026 or 2027 depending on service population. The rules covers public libraries, public schools, and public higher education so libraries across the country will be impacted by the new rules.

To help everyone understand what the new rules will mean for libraries, ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Accessibility Assembly will co-sponsor an online session with representatives from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in late-July/early-August. We'll send out an announcement once the date/time is finalized.

To prepare for this session, we need to know what questions you have about the new rules as the DOJ representatives can only respond to pre-submitted questions.

So read the DOJ's briefing on the new rule (and the full ADA rule pdf if desired), then send in any questions you have to this posting so we can submit the questions to our presenters.

Also, please feel free to email me at jerry.yarnetsky@miamioh.edu if you have any questions about the program or this need.

Many thanks!

Jerry Yarnetsky

Co-chair ALA's Accessibility Assembly

Web services librarian

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

PS - here are a few of the questions I have about the rule through the lens of a university library to prime the pump:

• If a university library hosts digital scholarship websites for faculty, do all the sites need to meet ADA standards even if they are not being used by university students? For example, if a creative writing professor's website is sharing their personal work to their professional community, but they are not using the site for their teaching.
• How will archiving websites work in practice? § 35.104(4) states the site "is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived." Does this mean a separate archive server or, if multiple servers are unavailable, can the entire site be clearly identified as archived by a banner notification across each page of the site for instance?
• Because a library's primary activity is research, would it be correct to say that older online research materials, such as academic journal articles, could not be exempt under the preexisting conventional electronic documents exemption because they are "used to ... gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities"?
• If a small press fails to make their electronic documents accessible by the deadline, but the content is required by an academic program, does the library still have to cut the resources or does the hardship clause allow for continued use?
• How would the electronic document exemption apply to archival material offered for research purposes by the university archives? For instance scans of early campus newspapers or early board of trustees records?

Thank you for posting this, Jerry and for sharing your questions. Is it safe to assume that faculty and others will need to adhere to these standards for documents uploaded to an LMS that is password protected? Is this something that could be addressed in the session? I know it's not specific library-related, but I know some of us teach credit-bearing courses and/or are embedded in courses so this may come up for a variety of materials and documents outside of databases. 

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

As you've heard, in April 2024, the Department of Justice published new rules as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA). The deadline will be April 2026 or 2027 depending on service population. The rules covers public libraries, public schools, and public higher education so libraries across the country will be impacted by the new rules.

To help everyone understand what the new rules will mean for libraries, ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Accessibility Assembly will co-sponsor an online session with representatives from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in late-July/early-August. We'll send out an announcement once the date/time is finalized.

To prepare for this session, we need to know what questions you have about the new rules as the DOJ representatives can only respond to pre-submitted questions.

So read the DOJ's briefing on the new rule (and the full ADA rule pdf if desired), then send in any questions you have to this posting so we can submit the questions to our presenters.

Also, please feel free to email me at jerry.yarnetsky@miamioh.edu if you have any questions about the program or this need.

Many thanks!

Jerry Yarnetsky

Co-chair ALA's Accessibility Assembly

Web services librarian

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

PS - here are a few of the questions I have about the rule through the lens of a university library to prime the pump:

• If a university library hosts digital scholarship websites for faculty, do all the sites need to meet ADA standards even if they are not being used by university students? For example, if a creative writing professor's website is sharing their personal work to their professional community, but they are not using the site for their teaching.
• How will archiving websites work in practice? § 35.104(4) states the site "is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived." Does this mean a separate archive server or, if multiple servers are unavailable, can the entire site be clearly identified as archived by a banner notification across each page of the site for instance?
• Because a library's primary activity is research, would it be correct to say that older online research materials, such as academic journal articles, could not be exempt under the preexisting conventional electronic documents exemption because they are "used to ... gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities"?
• If a small press fails to make their electronic documents accessible by the deadline, but the content is required by an academic program, does the library still have to cut the resources or does the hardship clause allow for continued use?
• How would the electronic document exemption apply to archival material offered for research purposes by the university archives? For instance scans of early campus newspapers or early board of trustees records?