Cole County plans web-accessibility upgrades, approves CivicPlus/AudioEye service

Melissa, a county staff member leading the web-accessibility effort, told commissioners the county faces an April 24 deadline to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards for websites and apps and outlined core requirements including descriptive alternate text for images, captions or transcripts for videos, keyboard-accessible forms and proper color contrast.

"So the bottom line, we must meet um WCAG 2.1 level AA," Melissa said, explaining the rule applies to state and local government web content and that exceptions exist only for archived content not actively used. She said the county must inventory documents and work with vendors to ensure future contract language requires accessibility compliance.

Melissa described steps staff are taking: an inventory of documents posted online, outreach to offices to prioritize service-critical forms and pages, and contact with the ADA information line for clarification on ambiguous document types. She warned that, in addition to remediation work, the Department of Justice can assess civil penalties and that legal costs may be recoverable in enforcement actions.

Following the presentation, the commission voted to sign a CivicPlus statement of work (quote Q-16818-1) to deploy AudioEye — a monitoring and remediation service that staff said would help with website navigation issues — using a CivicPlus credit the county holds to cover the first-year cost. Commissioners described AudioEye as a start while staff pursue document-remediation tools for PDFs and other formats.

The county will return with implementation details and periodic updates; staff asked for another progress report in early April to identify sticking points and to request funding or additional tools if needed.