Heads up: If you offer online document management services for government entities in communities with more than 50,000 people, be prepared for urgent inquiries about the ADA accessibility of those documents and the interface for them. Those governments have until April 24, 2026 to meet ADA Level AA requirements for their sites, including elements that are managed by a third party. Municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents have one more year to reach compliance.
What are the requirements? The key aspects of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA are four core principles identified with the acronym POUR:
- Perceivable: Information and UI components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive (e.g., providing text alternatives for images).
- Operable: UI components and navigation must be operable (e.g., all functionality available via keyboard).
- Understandable: Information and operation of the user interface must be understandable (e.g., predictable web page operation).
- Robust: Content must be robust enough to be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
This list just scratches the surface, of course. This website gives more in-depth information: https://www.govbuilt.com/ada-compliance-government-websites
The key thing for you as a reprographic shop owner is to make sure that the system you’re using for document management is compliant. If you use ReproConnect, you're well positioned, according to ReproConnect president Joseph Szobody, as the platform has been extensively updated to support accessibility compliance and help clients test, verify, and demonstrate conformance (contact ReproConnect for more details on compliance).
It’s possible that other suppliers of this type of software also are compliant, but be sure to ask them. And get enough details that you can confidently tell your municipal clients that the part of their site that you contribute is compliant.
And keep this in mind: If your service is compliant, now may be the time to promote that heavily so that potential new clients are aware of that. What looks like a challenge may become an opportunity.