By Minh N. Vu

The federal government recently released an Unified Agenda announcing that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has delayed to March 2015 the issuance of proposed regulations setting requirements and technical standards for public accommodations websites. 

According to the last Unified Agenda, these proposed regulations were to be issued this past April 2014.  This is not a positive development for businesses or individuals with disabilities as there is an urgent need for clarity in this area.  In the meantime, as we have reported, the lack of a legally binding website accessibility standard has not deterred DOJ from demanding in enforcement actions that public accommodations’ websites comply with a privately developed set of guidelines known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA.   DOJ also pushed back the date for issuing proposed regulations for state and local government websites to August 2014.  

Edited by Kristina M. Launey