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Albany staff outline plan to meet DOJ’s new web‑accessibility rules, warn of tight deadline
Summary
City staff briefed the Albany City Council on a Department of Justice change to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires government web content to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards; staff said resources are limited but the city has a compliance plan and will prioritize high‑use content ahead of an April deadline for larger jurisdictions.
Matt Harrington, Albany’s digital services lead, told the City Council on March 9 that the U.S. Department of Justice has revised Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and that the change requires state and local government websites, apps, social media content and video captioning to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA.
"So, what is changing? So, uh, the Department of Justice, uh, has changed title two of the ADA," Harrington said, adding that the practical effect is broader legal exposure for jurisdictions that leave publicly funded web content inaccessible. He said cities with populations above 50,000 face an April 24 compliance deadline and that smaller jurisdictions generally receive an additional year.
The change matters because digital access is treated as a civil‑rights obligation, Harrington said, and failing to remediate content can create liability through Department of Justice enforcement or private lawsuits. Harrington said Albany already has a digital accessibility compliance plan, has started migrating and remediating problematic PDF forms, and is rolling out staff training and procurement changes so vendors delivering city content meet accessibility standards.
Councilors pressed staff on what could happen if pages or services are not brought into compliance immediately. Harrington said the city can prioritize high‑use materials and — as a last resort under a risk‑management strategy — temporarily take down limited sections of the site to reduce exposure while remediation continues.
Harrington cautioned that the work is resource intensive. "At this point we do not have resources allocated for like technology solutions," he said, describing much of the initial remediation as manual work that would benefit from dedicated funding in a future budget. He said the city is also coordinating regionally with other public information officers to share strategies and reduce duplicated effort.
The city manager later commended Harrington for keeping Albany informed and noted the rule is effectively an unfunded mandate: "There are no funds that come with it," the manager said.
Next steps: staff will continue the remediation plan, prioritize the most used content and report progress; Council and staff agreed the city should be able to show demonstrable progress after April 24–25 even if not every page is fully remediated.
