The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy will be hosting a webinar and listening session on July 23, 2024, at 11 am (Eastern Time) on the Microsoft Teams platform. The discussion will focus on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) final rule on Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website and accessibility requirements for state and local governments (Title II of the ADA). For more information about this final rule, please visit: Justice Department Finalizes Rule Requiring State and Local Governments to Make their Websites Accessible – SBA's Office of Advocacy
Please register HERE and provide the information requested to receive a Teams link.
AGENDA
- Welcome and Introduction to the Office of Advocacy (11:00 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.)
Janis Reyes, Assistant Chief Counsel, SBA Office of Advocacy
- DOJ’s Briefing on Final Rule and Q&A (11:05 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)
Abigail Olson and Logan Gerrity, Attorney Advisors, Disability Rights Section, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice
DOJ attorneys will provide a briefing of the final rule and will answer some of the submitted questions during the webinar. Please submit your question in advance when you register or email your question to Janis.Reyes@sba.gov.
The speakers from the DOJ will not be able to answer live questions.
- Small Business Listening Session on DOJ’s Final Rule (12:00 p.m.-12:30 p.m.)
There will be an opportunity for small businesses (including local governments) to provide feedback on compliance with the final rule and ask any questions.
The speakers from the DOJ will be in listening mode and will not be able to answer live questions. However, the DOJ will take the attendees’ feedback and questions into account when considering possible future technical assistance.
- Adjourn (12:30 p.m.)
Can I Ask Questions During the Webinar?
The speakers from the DOJ will not be able to answer live questions during the webinar.
If you have questions that are not answered during the presentation, there are a variety of other resources on the rule that you can consult. The DOJ has published a fact sheet that provides a plain language description of the rule’s requirements. The DOJ has also published a Small Entity Compliance Guide, which is geared specifically towards people who work for or with state or local governments, and provides additional tips for how those governments might begin their efforts to comply with the rule.
The DOJ also operates an ADA Information Line that members of the public can call to ask any questions they may have about the rule. All calls to the line are confidential. The ADA Information Line can be reached at 800-514-0301 (voice) and 1-833-610-1264 (TTY). Accessibility specialists are available to take calls Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m. and 3:00-5:30 p.m. ET; Tuesday from 12:30pm-5:30pm ET; and Thursday from 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. ET.
Advocacy meetings are open to all interested persons and are intended to facilitate an open and frank discussion about issues of interest to small business. These meetings are off the record and not intended for press purposes. Direct quotations of presenters or attendees may not be used without direct written approval of the person(s) making the statement. All press inquiries should be sent to chandler.baxter@sba.gov. Agendas and presentations are available to all. Please note that this meeting will not be recorded.
If you need a reasonable accommodation, including a sign language interpreter for this meeting, please contact Janis.Reyes@sba.gov.
Visit https://advocacy.sba.gov/category/regulation/regulatory-alerts/ to comment on important proposed regulations.
DOJ’s Final Rule Requiring State and Local Governments to Make their Websites ADA Accessible
On April 24, 2024, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (DOJ) issued a final rule revising Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The rule requires state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible for people with disabilities. The agency is adopting the technical standards of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. In its fact sheet, DOJ has also listed exceptions to this rule, including archived content that is not currently used, pre-existing conventional electronic documents, content posted by third parties under certain circumstances, individualized documents that are password-protected; and pre-existing social media posts.
DOJ released the following compliance dates for schedule for the final rule:
Public entities with fewer than 50,000 persons/ special district governments:
April 24, 2026, three years after publication of the final rule
Public entities with 50,000 or more persons:
April 24, 2027, two years after the publication of the final rule
- Read DOJ’s Final Rule.
- Read DOJ’s fact sheet and press release.
- Read DOJ’s final regulatory flexibility analysis.
- Read Advocacy’s comment letter on the proposed rule.
- Advocacy contact: Send an email to Janis Reyes at Janis.Reyes@sba.gov.