[Colorado-Talk] HB24-1454: A Bill Providing a One-Year Grace Period for Noncompliance with Technology Standards

[Curtis Chong]

Greetings everyone:

 

HB24-1454, introduced by Representative David Ortiz, provides a one-year
grace period for public agencies who are making a good faith effort toward
complying with Colorado's technology standards.

 

Quoting from the summary on the  HB24-1454 cover page
<https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1454> :

 

"Current law requires state agencies and public entities to comply with
digital accessibility standards on or before July 1, 2024. The bill provides
a one-year extension to July 1, 2025, of immunity from liability for failure
to comply with the digital accessibility standards for an agency that
demonstrates good faith efforts toward compliance or toward resolution of
any complaint of noncompliance."

 

For those of you who like to dig into such things, here is a link to a PDF
copy of HB24-1454.
https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2024A/bills/2024a_145
4_01.pdf

 

We are told that on Monday, April 22, HB24-1454 will be heard by the House
Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs. People who have
looked at the committee's calendar tell me that HB24-1454 cannot be found on
the schedule. Interestingly, some of us were able to sign up to testify on
HB24-1454 by going to the Colorado General Assembly Testimony Page, found at
https://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2024A/commsumm.nsf/signIn.xsp.
Interested persons can choose to testify in person, in writing, or remotely
via Zoom.

 

HB21-1110 is the original bill (now law) which requires public agencies,
both state and local, to comply with web content accessibility guidelines by
July 1, 2024. When this bill was first negotiated, way back in 2021,
everybody knew that public agencies would have three years to comply. After
HB21-1110 was signed into law, the Governor's Office of Information
Technology (OIT) was a pivotal player in helping public agencies to
understand how they could best plan to come into compliance by July 1 of
this year. Let me be clear about this. OIT has been a very staunch supporter
of accessibility in general and HB21-1110 in particular.

 

Even though everybody has had three years to get ready, we learned that some
local governments and school districts were asking to be given more time to
comply with the provisions of HB21-1110. Hb24-1454 is the end result of
these efforts.

 

While the NFB of Colorado does not understand why three years does not seem
to be enough time for some organizations to make their technology accessible
and would, on principle, oppose any extension of the July 1 deadline, we
have decided that public agencies who are demonstrating that they are making
good faith efforts to comply with HB21-1110 should be able to gain a
one-year extension without penalty for noncompliance. Thus, we support
HB24-1454 with its specific examples of what good faith efforts might
entail. We support HB24-1454 as introduced. Let us see what other agencies
and organizations will try to do to this bill in the next few weeks.

 

Cordially,

 

Curtis Chong

 

 

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