Black Hawk County staff recommend Accessible LLC to bring county websites into DOJ Title II compliance

County staff told supervisors on Nov. 25 that the U.S. Department of Justice’s April 2024 Title II guidance establishes a technical standard for digital accessibility and that Black Hawk County must demonstrate a path to compliance by April 2026.

Gabby DeWitt, a county marketing staff member and website-committee spokesperson, said the county reviewed five vendors and recommended Accessible LLC for a tailored, train-the-trainer approach across five county websites. She told the board the recommended arrangement replaces an open‑ended retainer with a defined scope of work and two payments scheduled from January through June, and that the work would be paid from the marketing professional‑services budget.

DeWitt said the vendor offered end‑user manual audits, staff training, and technical support, and that references included municipal clients that had used similar services. She cautioned that adding widgets alone is insufficient and can conflict with assistive technology, saying such widgets “only provide about 30%” of accessibility fixes and can sometimes cause additional problems.

Board members asked for one more review by legal and the finance director and agreed to place the contract on a future agenda once the final scope and contract language are circulated. DeWitt said the committee would return the item for a resolution and that staff expect accessibility work to be ongoing rather than a one‑time fix.

Next steps: staff will circulate the final scope and have the finance/finance director and county attorney review the contract before the board considers formal approval.