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Home My WebLink AboutAgenda 04-07-2026; 7-c - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Orange County’s Online Content 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: April 7, 2026 Action Agenda Item No. 7-c SUBJECT: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Orange County's Online Content DEPARTMENT: Office of Civil Rights and Civic Life ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Presentation Paul Slack, 919-345-2317 PURPOSE: To receive a report on the changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines and how they will impact County business. BACKGROUND: The 2024 update to the Americans with Disabilities Act sets a new standard for making government websites and digital services accessible by requiring compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Essentially, this means Orange County's online content (websites, forms, PDFs, and service portals) must be easier to see, use, and understand for people with disabilities, especially visual and hearing disabilities. The update puts more focus on mobile access, clearer navigation, and making sure all users can complete tasks without barriers. For Orange County, this will require reviewing and fixing existing content, building accessibility into new projects, and ensuring staff and vendors follow these standards going forward. Jurisdictions of Orange County's size need to meet these requirements by April 24, 2026. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with the presentation of the information. ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PLAN: This item supports: • GOAL 5: PUBLIC EDUCATION/LEARNING COMMUNITY OBJECTIVE 1. Foster collaborative relationships with formal and informal educational organizations and agencies to provide opportunities for community members to meet, connect, and learn together. • GOAL 6: DIVERSE AND VIBRANT ECONOMY OBJECTIVE 5. Increase access to and awareness of resources and assistance available to residents and businesses. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends the Board receive the report and provide any comments and questions. ORANGE COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA ADA Guidelines Update Presentation April 7'h, 2026 3 Background • In 2024, the DOJ released new guidance on the ADA, stating that public-sector websites and social media need to update their online services to comply with WCAG 2. 1 Level AA. — This update primarily concerns making content compatible with screen readers for people who are blind or hard of seeing; accessibility of content on mobile screens; accessible audio content for people who are hard of hearing; clearer navigation on websites; an overall ability to complete tasks without barriers. • That guidance goes into effect on April 24, 2026. i ORANGE COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA 4 Guideline Changes 1 . Page structure and headings 1 . Must follow a specific format to be compatible with screen readers. 2. Plain-language content and 2. Aiming for 7th-grade reading level readability 3. See 1 . 3 . Accessible PDFs 4. All images and videos need text to describe them. Videos need to be 4. Image alternative text subtitled 5. Page layout consistency and 5. Web pages should be consistent to content consolidation promote predictability for users. 6. Old, outdated material should be 6. Archiving and retiring retired to clear web pages. unnecessary content ORANGE COUNTY 3 NORTH CAROLINA 5 What We Have Done to Date • Established an ADA Steering Committee and Work Group to identify the best ways to meet this guidance. • Acquired the software Aquia and Equidox to aid in auditing our digital spaces to understand the scope of our remediation needs. • Hosted county-wide trainings to teach employees how to remediate out of compliance content and how to create new, compliant content. • Hosted weekly work sessions and lunch and learns for employees working on the remediation efforts and new content creation. • Met 1 on 1 with departments to answer specific questions about how the update will impact them. • Met with Civic Plus to get an understanding of their timeline of remediation for parts of our website that they control. i ORANGE COUNTY 4 NORTH CAROLINA 6 Orange County ADA Based Digital Core Principles • Accessibility FIRST design In practice: • Plain language — Single column layouts • Consistency and ease of use — Use headings for web pages, Word docs (Bold text is not a heading) • Public-centered content — Short ara ra hs p g p — Bulleted lists — AVOID JARGON — Use alt text — Creating an accessible Word Doc makes creating an accessible PDF much easier ORANGE COUNTY 5 NORTH CAROLINA 7 Staff Responsibilities • Content • Links • Images • Layouts ORANGE COUNTY 6 NORTH CAROLINA 8 Current Training & Readiness Snapshot 1 /2 Where We Are Today Scope • 31 departments have had at least one person trained. • Minimum standard: 2 remediators trained per department Training Completion • 75 staff members have completed the 2-day remediation training • 98 staff members have completed the I -day content creator training • 3 departments have no one trained for remediation ORANGE COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA 9 Current Training & Readiness Snapshot (212) New Content Training: Weekly on Goals Thursdays e Train between 150 and 250 Time: Alternating between 9 am — content creators (98 trained so far 12 pm and 1 pm and 4 pm in this cycle) Participants: up to 20 • All current content creators Format: In person trained before the end of April. ORANGE COUNTY $ NORTH CAROLINA 10 PlanningDept. Agenda Packet Items 1 /3 • Current Practice — Includes Abstract, Staff Report, Application with Supplemental Materials, Staff/Agency Reviews & Reports, and Approval Materials — Includes numerous third party materials and technical reports i ORANGE COUNTY 9 NORTH CAROLINA 11 PlanningDept. Agenda Packet Items 2/3 • Planning profession standard is to only feature summary/abstract, staff analysis, and approval materials • Professional staff reviews the application & technical materials and reports any concerns/conditions to the boards i ORANGE COUNTY 10 NORTH CAROLINA 12 PlanningDept. Agenda Packet Items 3/3 • New Practice — Packets will be reduced from 100+ pages to 10-20 pages — Abstract, Staff Report, and Approval Materials — We are reducing the packets because staff cannot remediate third party materials and technical reports, including applications — Aligns Orange County with the professional standards of peer communities (Chapel Hill, Durham, Mecklenburg Co., Wake Co.) i ORANGE COUNTY 11 NORTH CAROLINA 13 Biggest Barriers to Compliance • Funding We have the resources needed to facilitate standard remediation and creation but remediating documents from the 1960s-1990s is challenging in addition to remediating long, technical documents. • Staff support / personnel — Remediation is time consuming and pulls people away from their main roles, with some departments struggling to meet their service responsibilities and ADA work at the same time. • Time — The guidelines go into effect in 3 weeks, and the scope of the updates needed has proven significant with many departments struggling to meet the deadline. i ORANGE COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA 14 CRCL Suggested Timelines 1 /2 • January 30 — Depts need to have their digital assets prioritized and sorted. Directors should work with the team to identify the most crucial documents and pages. All legal services should be included. — All employees involved in ADA efforts should be identified, and there should be a plan for them to attend training. — Depts should have a meeting with all employees involved in ADA remediation and create a work plan for how they will make time for ADA remediation. This work plan should include prioritization information for what is most critical. • February 17 — Depts should complete a review of their web pages and delete all unnecessary pages, removed purely decorative images, and remediated their homepages and department pages. Community Relations has created a Style Guide outlining a consistent look for all department pages. This will be sent to department directors by next Friday. i ORANGE COUNTY 13 NORTH CAROLINA 15 CRCL Suggested Timelines (2/2) • March 31 — Depts should complete remediation of high-touch/traffic web pages and PDFs — Depts should complete adding Alt text to the remaining images on their webpage. • April 24 — Depts should be actively remediating remaining web pages and PDFs that are required to remain online or Depts have chosen to keep online but are not high touch. — Online videos should have a transcript and subtitles added. ORANGE COUNTY 14 NORTH CAROLINA