Kane County IT outlines steps to meet DOJ web-accessibility rule, warns of fines
Loading...
Summary
Kane County IT told the administration committee it must meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards for public websites by April 24, 2026, and described tools, training and an archiving strategy to handle a large backlog of PDFs. IT warned of Department of Justice fines for noncompliance and said departments must cooperate on remediation.
Kane County IT warned the administration committee on Wednesday that a new U.S. Department of Justice rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the county's public websites and mobile applications to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, and that the county must be compliant by April 24, 2026.
"In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring state and local government websites and mobile applications to comply with the web content accessibility guidelines," said Adam Teder of the county applications team. Teder told the committee the county is aiming for double-A compliance and has been scanning sites with Silk Tide and Siteimprove to measure gaps.
The ruling, Teder said, affects not only individual web pages but also tens of thousands of legacy documents the county has published as PDFs or scans. "When you have large amounts of information that would need to be brought into compliance," Roger Fonstock, the county's IT and buildings executive director, told the committee, "we need to figure out what to do with it, how to archive it or how much information do we have to maintain on the website."
IT described a multi-pronged approach: regular automated scans, staff training modules through Siteimprove, remediation tools for PDFs when feasible, converting frequently used fillable PDFs into web forms via the county's form tools, and using Granicus/Legistar to present agendas and minutes in a more accessible, web-native format. Teder said IT will share progress metrics with the committee as they become available.
Teder and IT staff emphasized that the Department of Justice enforcement standard applies to public-facing sites; internal intranets are not covered today but are being considered for best-practice alignment. "This rule as of today will only be for public-facing websites," Teder said. County staff also warned that some content may be eligible for archival exemption if it was created before the deadline; archived items must be clearly labeled.
IT highlighted enforcement risk: "There are potential consequences if we do not follow this, and it comes with penalties that could be a first-time fine of $75,000, and then subsequent violations can be as high as $150,000," Teder said. He and Charles Lasky of IT said tools can identify many issues but remediation of scanned documents, handwritten pages, or third-party attachments will require staff time and possible policy choices about what remains public-facing.
Committee members pressed staff on timelines, whether the rule applies to social media, and how to handle attachments in board packets that the county did not create. IT said it will continue its three-day scan cadence, work with departments to determine what content to archive or convert, and provide training on producing accessible documents.
Next steps: IT will continue countywide scanning, begin sharing quantitative progress, and work with the state's attorney's office and departments to finalize internal procedures for archiving and remediation. The committee did not take a formal vote on the presentation; IT characterized this as an informational update and asked for cooperation from offices and departments going forward.
