Bill Text: NY A00266 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Requires state agencies to conform any of their websites to the most current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium for accessibility; requires the office of information technology services to provide a report to the governor and legislature every two years.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-2)

Status: (Passed) 2023-12-22 - approval memo.60 [A00266 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A00266-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           266

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     January 4, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. BURDICK -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Governmental Operations

        AN ACT to amend the state technology law, in relation to requiring state
          agencies and entities to  ensure  their  websites  are  accessible  to
          persons with disabilities

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section
     2  103-b to read as follows:
     3    § 103-b. Website accessibility. 1. The office shall adopt  a  protocol
     4  for websites maintained by or on behalf of a state agency or state enti-
     5  ty relating to website accessibility for persons with disabilities. Such
     6  protocol  shall  provide  for  agency  websites  to  adopt either of the
     7  following standards: (a) section 1194.22 of title thirty-six of the code
     8  of federal regulations or (b) the web content  accessibility  guidelines
     9  2.1  level AA, developed by the worldwide web consortium, or any succes-
    10  sor standards. The adopted protocol required by this section may  differ
    11  from  such  standards  in  specific instances when the office's designee
    12  determines, after consulting with experts in website design and  reason-
    13  able  accommodations  for  people with disabilities and the holding of a
    14  public hearing, that such differences will  provide  effective  communi-
    15  cation for people with disabilities, and that such differences are docu-
    16  mented  in  such  protocol. Such protocol shall be made available to the
    17  public online. This section shall not require  an  agency  to  take  any
    18  action  that would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of a
    19  service, program, or activity.
    20    2. No later than December thirty-first, two thousand twenty-three, and
    21  every two years thereafter, the office  designee  shall  submit  to  the
    22  governor and the legislature a written report that documents the compli-
    23  ance  of  websites maintained by or on behalf of state agencies or state
    24  entities with the protocol adopted pursuant to subdivision one  of  this
    25  section.
    26    § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    27  it shall have become a law.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01135-01-3