The DOJ has advised that it will not publish a ‘Notice of Proposed Rule Making’ (NPRM) relating to web access obligations until December 2012. An NPRM is the final step in the process of regulation formulation before a rule is actually created, meaning that formal regulations are unlikely until the following year at least.
The United States has anti-discrimination legislation making disability discrimination unlawful, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Other laws, including the international benchmark Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, have been introduced to increase access to media in particular.
Like Australia, however, these laws lack requirements for commercial organisations to make their content and services, including web content, accessible to people with disabilities. The delay is a significant setback as the regulations would have shown international leadership on web accessibility.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 are widely recognised as the international standard and best practice for access to online content. For more information, visit the online media section of our website.
Top of page