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City unveils new Rochester website built for WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility and outlines remediation work
Summary
Communications staff told the council the city and library launched new sites with accessibility foundations and that the Department of Justice deadline has shifted to 2027; staff stressed remediation, governance, and training are ongoing and urged residents to use rochestermn.gov as the authoritative source.
City communications staff on April 20 briefed the Rochester City Council on progress toward WCAG 2.1 AA digital accessibility compliance and the recent launch of new city and library websites built with accessibility as a foundational requirement.
Liz Gass, digital communications coordinator, said the new site improves navigation, mobile responsiveness and compatibility with assistive technologies and reduces reliance on PDFs by moving forms to web-based formats where possible. She framed the work as an enterprise responsibility requiring updated workflows and staff training and noted the Department of Justice had shifted a compliance checkpoint originally set for April 24 to 2027.
Gass cautioned that some functionality or specific items (for example, certain maps or vendor workflows) may look different during the transition. She said remediation is ongoing and that staff will prioritize high-impact content and document areas where functionality was reduced so council members and staff can track trade-offs.
Council members thanked the team and raised specific concerns about availability of campaign finance forms, the boards-and-commissions signup page, and the potential for broken links during the transition. City Administrator Zelms and Gass said the team will continue iterative improvements and provide additional documentation of items that may have been affected during the migration.
The council congratulated staff on progress while acknowledging the regulatory pressure and workload ahead as the city continues remediation and monitoring efforts.
