Following is an overview of digital accessibility laws and standards that affect Aims Community College by requiring that our digital content meets certain accessibility standards, along with links for further reading.
Related Links
Digital Accessibility Planning
Digital Accessibility Planning
Accessibility Laws and Standards
Colorado law (House Bill 21-1110) sets digital accessibility requirements for state and local governments and institutions. The Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) drafted rules to help organizations with accessibility compliance.
Following is a summary of HB 21-1110 and the OIT rules:
- Anti-Discrimination – It is unlawful to exclude individuals with disabilities from services, programs, or activities provided by a Colorado government entity.
- Accessibility Plan Requirement – The college must develop a digital accessibility plan and meet state accessibility standards set by the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) by July 1, 2025.
- No Exemptions – All technology, hardware, software and digital content (public- and internal-facing) must comply.
Passed in 1990, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that protects the rights of people with disabilities. In 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) established technical requirements (known as Title II of the ADA, or Title II) that state and local governments must meet to ensure their websites and mobile apps are accessible to people with disabilities. Read a Fact Sheet about Title II.
Key aspects of Title II include:
- Adopting WCAG 2.1 AA as the minimum technical standard for web content and mobile apps.
- Institutions are responsible for ensuring third-party vendors (e.g., learning management systems, publisher content, social media, YouTube videos, mobile apps, etc.) comply with accessibility standards.
- The College must ensure all services, programs, and activities—whether delivered directly or through a contractor—are accessible.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international nonprofit organization that develops standards that make the internet more accessible. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and Colorado law (House Bill 21-1110) reference version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by W3C. These standards give us common language for what it means to make the web accessible to as many people as possible. Within WCAG 2.1 are Levels of conformance represented by A (lowest), AA (mid-level) and AAA (highest).
The standards address specific aspects of digital content, such as non-text content (audio and visual), color and contrast, plain language usage and more. The Aims Community College Accessibility Plan sets a goal to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards.