Requires state agencies and entities to ensure their websites are accessible to persons with disabilities by following certain protocol; requires the office of information technology services to provide a report to the governor and legislature every two years.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7912
IN SENATE
January 19, 2022
___________
Introduced by Sen. MANNION -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Internet and Technology
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-two, 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.
LBD13986-01-1
