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Riley County to buy AudioEye accessibility service for county website, citing ADA Title II and new DOJ rule
Summary
Commission approved a one‑year onboarding and subscription with AudioEye (through CivicPlus) at a discounted $3,100 initial cost to bring county website content toward WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility under the Department of Justice Title II update; staff highlighted remaining PDF challenges and ongoing compliance work.
The Riley County Commission approved a contract with AudioEye — offered through the county’s website vendor CivicPlus — for website accessibility services to help bring the county’s online content into compliance with the Department of Justice’s updated Title II Americans with Disabilities Act rules.
County staff told the commission the DOJ final rule requires state and local governments to ensure websites and digital content are accessible to people with disabilities by April 2026. Staff said the county’s content management system provides an accessible framework but the county has nearly 4,000 pages of content, plus many PDF documents and forms, that the vendor cannot remediate without automated and human review.
Staff recommended AudioEye’s service because it scans the site, flags noncompliant content and either remediates issues automatically or has staff perform necessary fixes. The public‑facing AudioEye toolbar offers features such as increased contrast, text size, keyboard navigation and other display tools. Staff said AudioEye runs a full site scan on onboarding and then checks changes about every two weeks.
Staff told the commission that PDFs and some archived, informational materials present a continuing challenge: the chosen vendor does not convert PDFs into fully accessible documents. Staff said the county would remove unnecessary PDFs and develop a longer‑term plan to remediate or replace remaining PDFs; staff also noted some archived, informational content may be exempt under the rules.
County counsel and procurement staff reviewed contract language. Procurement staff identified a mutual termination‑for‑convenience clause and payment calculations on termination that differed from the county’s typical one‑sided language; the county’s counsel said those contract terms were discussed with the vendor.
Action: the commission approved the AudioEye contract at an initial discounted cost of $3,100 for the first year, with automatic annual renewal unless canceled with 60 days’ notice.
