Digital Accessibility Roadmap

Contents

1. Executive Summary
2.  Legal Considerations and Recommendations
   2.1 Applicable Laws
   2.1.1 ADA Title II
   2.1.2 Section 504
3. Digital Accessibility Plan
   3.1 Technology Accessibility Statement
   3.2 Existing Web and Cloud-Based Applications
   3.2.1 The City of Gresham's CMS
   3.2.2 Other Existing Web- and Cloud-Based Applications
   3.2.3 Web and Cloud-Based Content Created by the City of Gresham
   3.3 Newly Deployed or Procured Applications
   3.4 Accessible Documents
   3.4.1 Current PDF Accessibility Technologies
   3.4.2 Existing PDF Documents
   3.4.3 New PDF and Electronic Documents
   3.5 Training
4.  Summary

Executive Summary

The Department of Justice's ADA Title II web accessibility regulation requires the City of Gresham's websites, web applications, and mobile applications to conform to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 A/AA and to be accessible to people with disabilities by April 26, 2027, unless digital content falls within a set of narrow exceptions. Because fully meeting the WCAG guidelines is technically impossible in the short term, Gresham has developed this Accessibility Plan to describe how it intends to make its web and digital technologies conform to WCAG 2.1 A/AA and make the programs, services, and activities provided through these technologies fully accessible to people with disabilities both now and in the future.

This plan starts with developing an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework. Then, the plan sets forth several procedural elements, including a technical accessibility statement, and technological and non-technological processes, including procurement processes and document remediation strategies. Together, these elements help ensure that the City of Gresham complies with its legal requirements and meets the needs of residents with disabilities. Specifically, the plan covers:

• Existing Technologies.The City of Gresham has dozens of different technology applications. The City will identify the business owners of these applications, prioritize these applications based on their impact on residents with disabilities, and work with the vendors who created each technology to eliminate these barriers. We will also take steps to ensure that new barriers are not introduced by our staff.
• New and Future Technologies. Most technology products contain accessibility barriers. To prevent new products from introducing new barriers, the City is developing a risk-based assessment tool that enables it to focus more on IT products with greater impact on users with disabilities. This will ensure that the City meets its obligation to purchase the most accessible products available in the most cost-effective way possible.
• Alternate Means of Access. Digital accessibility compliance is an ongoing process. Even as the City of Gresham works to bring its technologies into conformance with WCAG 2.1 A/AA, some barriers will remain during that transition. Moreover, full WCAG conformance does not guarantee equal access for all individuals with disabilities. People with cognitive disabilities, multiple disabilities, or people who rely on less common assistive technologies may still encounter difficulty. The City's Technology Accessibility Statement addresses this directly, ensuring that all residents can access City programs, services, and activities through non-digital means regardless of the state of its digital technology.
• PDF Remediation and Other Resources. The City of Gresham has hundreds of existing PDF documents, and most were created without a focus on accessibility. In addition to other tools at its disposal, the City is exploring specialized tools to make documents accessible. The City is also securing contracts with vendors specializing in PDF remediation.
• Training. The City of Gresham will identify a training course to deploy to all staff, and potentially contract employees and managed services vendors, in the coming months. This will inform participants of the City's obligations for digital accessibility and the roles each person plays. Experience has shown that most major accessibility barriers are created by vendor technologies and that the City's staff and contractors have relatively few areas where they can create accessibility barriers. The City will identify a cost-effective training program to ensure that Gresham's staff and contractors know how to avoid creating such barriers.

The City of Gresham's approach is a thoughtful balance of good governance, fiscal responsibility, and access for people with disabilities. At the same time, the City of Gresham will put the needs of people with disabilities first and consider how to ensure their access to City services. Lastly, the City will balance the importance of information with the cost of remediation to avoid large up-front costs.

Legal Considerations and Recommendations

State and local governments face several significant legal challenges in digital accessibility. This section reviews the laws and regulations applicable to state and local governments, the risks and mitigating strategies available to them, and internal processes to help avoid or reduce liability.

Applicable Laws

As a city with a population over 50,000 that provides public services, the City of Gresham is subject to two key federal accessibility deadlines: it must comply with the DOJ's ADA Title II web accessibility rule by April 26, 2027, and with the HHS Section 504 web accessibility rule by May 11, 2026.

ADA Title II

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers the responsibilities of state and local governments concerning qualified individuals with disabilities. The term qualified individuals with disabilities refers to individuals with disabilities who would otherwise qualify for participation or benefits in that government's programs, services, or activities. Among Title II's numerous requirements, Title II requires that state and local governments ensure that communications with people with disabilities are equally effective to communications with people without disabilities. This is relevant because internet and digital technologies are simply a means of transacting business or communicating with members of the public. Title II of the ADA is enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and by private litigation. Damages are usually only available to private plaintiffs upon showing intentional discrimination.

On April 24, 2024, DOJ published its Final Rule on Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Governments. This new regulation added a new Subpart H to its existing Title II regulation and requires that state and local governments make their web and mobile app technologies comply with WCAG 2.1 A/AA, unless they could demonstrate that compliance would result in an undue burden or fundamental alteration. The new ADA Title II regulation also permits public entities to use conforming alternate versions of inaccessible technologies, and the ADA Title II regulation allows the use of inaccessible technologies that have a minimal impact on access. The DOJ rule also exempts five categories of content that the OIT Accessibility Rule does not exempt. These five categories are: archived web content; pre-existing conventional electronic documents; content posted by a third party; individualized, password-protected or otherwise secured conventional electronic documents; and preexisting social media posts. Public entities were required to comply with the new DOJ rule by April 24, 2026, if the total population is 50,000 or more, or April 26, 2027, otherwise. On April 20, 2026, the DOJ issued an Interim Final Rule extending these deadlines to April 26, 2027, and April 26, 2028, respectively. While the City has until April 2027 to meet these requirements, it has elected to be proactive and continue its accessibility efforts under its original timeline.

Section 504

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 covers federal agencies and federally funded entities. Section 504 covers the entire instrumentality of a state or local government if any part of it receives federal financial assistance. Violations of Section 504 carry the risk of an investigation by the funding agency or the U.S. Department of Justice. Violating Section 504 also risks losing federal funding.

While web accessibility litigation under Section 504 is much more limited than ADA litigation, there has been movement recently to use Section 504 to affect web accessibility. On May 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its final rule updating its Section 504 regulation, which affects virtually every health care provider, insurance plan, and most health social service facility across the country. The new regulations incorporate several updates, including a requirement for websites of these entities that mirrors the WCAG 2.1 A/AA requirement in DOJ's new Title II regulation. HHS worked in parallel with DOJ to ensure that these sections of its regulation were identical. The HHS regulations require WCAG compliance by May 11, 2026, for recipients with 15 or more employees, or May 10, 2027, for recipients with fewer than 15 employees.

The City of Gresham receives funding from HHS, but it is unclear whether that funding goes to the City as a whole or to a specific department within the City. Whichever entity receives such funding will need to make its web and mobile apps compliant with the HHS regulation. The City is confirming the precise scope of this coverage with its budget and finance department. In addition, if the Department of Justice updates its Section 504 regulation to require WCAG compliance, all federal agencies will be required to update their Section 504 regulations to be consistent with the Attorney General's regulations. In that case, each department in the City that receives funding for an agency with such updated Section 504 regulations would be required to meet WCAG, independent of the ADA requirements.

Digital Accessibility Plan

The City of Gresham's digital accessibility plan focuses on compliance with the new ADA Title II web accessibility rule.

Technology Accessibility Statement

The City of Gresham has developed a Digital Accessibility Statement. This statement identifies Gresham's commitment to meeting WCAG 2.1 A/AA and the needs of people with disabilities. It also directs individuals to Gresham's ADA Coordinator if they encounter difficulty accessing programs, services, and activities, including those provided through digital technology. The statement also includes a feedback mechanism through which residents can report specific barriers, including the page, the task they were attempting, and the nature of the problem, so that Gresham can prioritize remediation accordingly. This statement is available as a link from the footer section of every GreshamOregon.gov webpage.

This accessibility statement supports ADA Title II compliance. First, many of the City's technologies were created before the new regulation and include WCAG barriers. Our accessibility statement helps ensure seamless access to our programs, services, and activities as we work to remove these barriers. Second, some people with disabilities may be unable to access our services even if the City fully complies with WCAG. The non-digital means of access in our accessibility statement ensure that these individuals will still be able to access City services.

The City of Gresham's accessibility statement also includes a link to its general ADA Title II page, which covers sign language interpreters, physical accessibility, and other non-digital accommodations. People with disabilities often use a website's accessibility link as their first point of contact for accommodation requests, and Gresham's accessibility statement now makes this information easier to access.

Gresham's goal is to ensure that all its programs, services, and activities are available just as conveniently through digital and non-digital means. In addition to offering residents the most accessible and convenient government possible, it also means that existing technological barriers would have a minimal impact on access for people with disabilities.

Existing Web- and Cloud-Based Applications

Gresham's CMS

• Gresham has completed an audit of its main website, GreshamOregon.gov, and content management system (CMS), including a detailed review of its templates, calendar controls, forms, and other custom components. The City's CMS is made by Optimizely DXP and managed by C2 Group, which built and maintain the backend. This audit identified inconsistencies with WCAG that may pose potential barriers for people with disabilities.
• Vendor-related issues. Most of the barriers are the responsibility of the C2 Group, and the City has contracted with the company to resolve these barriers. Resolving these barriers will eliminate infrastructure-related barriers that affect new and existing web pages.
• Content-creator issues. The remaining barriers are those introduced by the City's content creators when they add or update web content. Because the City's CMS system only allows content creators to contribute content through a basic rich text editor, the types of barriers they can create are limited to simple errors, such as missing alternative text on images and improper heading structure. Most of these barriers can be identified with automated testing tools, which the City will use to detect them. This approach is discussed below.

Other Existing Web and Cloud-Based Applications

The City of Gresham uses approximately 35 web- and cloud-based applications, including social media, to provide information and services to the public. The City has created an inventory of these applications and will identify the business owners for each. Gresham will prioritize these applications for accessibility based on several factors, including:

• Exposure. How many individuals are affected by the application? Is the application public-facing or internal only?
• Cost. What was the cost of the application? What is the cost, including disruption for Gresham and its customers, of replacing the application?
• Impact. Are there people with disabilities who use, or are likely to use, the application or its alternatives?
• General Use and Use Cases. What do people use the application for? What is a step-by-step process for accessing the main uses of the application?
• Workarounds. Who can people with disabilities contact, such as by telephone, in order to get the same services offered through the application? What are the specific steps needed to receive these same services?

Once prioritized, the City will focus on each technology in turn to remove existing barriers. This process will involve the following steps:

• Obtain Accessibility Information from Vendors. First, the City of Gresham will contact its vendors regarding the accessibility of their products, their accessibility roadmap, and their timeline for improvements. The City will also ask each vendor to provide either a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) documenting the product's accessibility. Vendors who have not made meaningful accessibility progress will be prioritized for use-case testing.
• Review and Refine Use Cases. The City of Gresham's IT Department will assess the use cases provided by Gresham staff and develop a brief set of test steps that a third-party accessibility team can test for WCAG conformance and develop a report of identified barriers.
• Conduct Testing and Reporting. The City of Gresham will identify testing resources capable of performing step-by-step use case testing for the scenarios outlined by the City. The City may conduct manual testing or outsource this testing to a qualified vendor to identify where barriers exist in the vendor's technology. This process will result in an accessibility audit that highlights WCAG violations encountered during actual user tasks.
• Work with Vendors to Resolve Issues. Gresham will then work with its vendors to have the barriers in the applications remediated. If the vendor fails to cooperate in removing the barriers, then Gresham will consider replacing the application.
• The City of Gresham is tracking its vendors' progress in making their products WCAG-compliant. As these improvements are made, the overall accessibility of our digital services will improve. This benefits everyone, including our customers with disabilities.

Web and Cloud-Based Content Created by the City of Gresham

In addition to the barriers created by our vendors, there will also be obstacles introduced by City staff in our digital content. Because the rich text editors in every modern CMS strictly limit the types of content that staff can input, there are only six areas where staff can make errors. These areas include:

• Images, alternative text, and images of text
• Headings
• Lists
• Color contrast
• Tables
• Videos, iFrames and other custom content, including captioning and audio description.

The City of Gresham will follow a comprehensive two-part solution for addressing these problems.

1. Automated Testing. The City will employ an industry-standard automated scanning tool to quickly identify all these issues, except for lack of captioning and audio descriptions, which can be detected by City staff.
2. Training. As detailed in 3.5 Training below, the City will identify comprehensive training to help staff understand their responsibilities for complying with ADA Title II. This will include training for digital content creators, explaining how to produce conforming content and easily test it, using free online tools, to ensure WCAG compliance.

Newly Deployed or Procured Applications

New technologies create both opportunities and risks for the City of Gresham's digital accessibility. If accessibility is considered early and often, new technologies can open opportunities for people with disabilities. Surprisingly, however, few modern applications are fully accessible, so new applications also create the risk of creating new barriers for people with disabilities.

Unfortunately, testing products for compliance with WCAG can be costly and difficult. Therefore, the City of Gresham is developing a risk matrix that focuses testing resources where they are needed most. For instance, a high-risk application, such as one that is public-facing, handles high transaction volume, or provides a critical city service, may require the City to evaluate multiple competing products and have each independently tested against common use cases. It may also require that the vendor demonstrate its accessibility based on common use cases that anticipate how the City will use the application. At the same time, the risk matrix still uses less burdensome procedures, such as obtaining and reviewing VPATs or ACRs, to ensure that even low-impact applications, such as specialized applications used by small internal teams, are chosen to maximize accessibility. The risk matrix may also require vendors to update information that is inaccurate in their VPAT or ACR.

The City of Gresham's risk matrix also identifies specific contracts or RFP clauses appropriate to each risk level, personnel within the City who must approve each risk determination, and the recordkeeping requirements for each level of risk. The City is also developing a two-stage screening process that ensures careful review by the City but simplifies communications to staff. This ensures that accessibility review is proportionate to actual risk and does not create unnecessary burden for routine, low-impact purchases. This comprehensive model maximizes opportunities for people with disabilities while reducing cost and risk for the City.

This model aligns well with the ADA Title II web accessibility rule. As noted, state and local governments must ensure WCAG compliance, provided it does not impose an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. It would be an undue burden to require the City of Gresham to guarantee WCAG compliance from every vendor. Instead, our process ensures that the City selects the most accessible product available and thoroughly documents that choice.

Accessible Documents

Accessible documents, particularly PDFs, pose a significant challenge for most medium- and large-sized organizations. Many organizations have been creating PDFs for years without considering accessibility, and making them accessible retroactively can be technically complex and resource-intensive. At the same time, common tools like Microsoft Word do not automatically produce accessible PDFs, and not all documents require the same level of remediation effort. The City of Gresham has adopted a two-part approach: a triage strategy for existing documents and a forward-looking process for new documents.

Current PDF Accessibility Technologies

A PDF document contains an image with underlying metadata that provides meaning to that image. One layer of this data is the tag structure, similar to HTML tags used for web page accessibility, which must be encoded to enable a PDF to be read by a screen reader or other assistive technology. Therefore, making a PDF accessible involves tagging the PDF to build the tag structure, and then ensuring that the tag structure accurately and meaningfully represents the document's visual content and intent.

Several types of products and services can support this process.

• PDF Remediation Products. Commercial versions of Adobe Acrobat can automatically tag a document for accessibility. Similarly, productivity tools like Microsoft Word will automatically create a tag structure when saving a Word document as a PDF. Ensuring that this tag structure is accessible and meets WCAG, however, usually requires special expertise or tools beyond Adobe Acrobat. The City of Gresham has found, however, that these tools can be difficult to use and require extensive training to operate proficiently. The City believes these tools should only be available to a few specialists and used only for the most basic accessibility challenges.
• PDF Remediation Services. Numerous vendors provide PDF remediation services. These services typically provide customers with a custom portal where they can upload inaccessible PDFs and have a fully accessible PDF document returned to them within 24 to 48 hours.
• Accessibility plug-ins for common office applications. Several vendors offer plug-ins for Microsoft Office that simplify creating accessible PDF documents. These tools do not require extensive training or specialized skills. Instead, they feature a wizard that guides users step-by-step through converting a Microsoft Word or PowerPoint document into an accessible PDF.
• Other Specialized PDF Accessibility Training, such as InDesign. Because few applications are as widespread as Microsoft Word, plug-ins are not easily available to convert other content into accessible PDF documents. However, several consultants offer specialized training to accomplish this. For example, some vendors make it simple to create accessible PDF documents from Adobe InDesign, a popular desktop publishing software.
• Templated Documents. Organizations often use PDF files to send bills, receipts, and other papers that have a consistent layout. Several companies can create accessible templates that make every document following the same layout accessible as PDFs. This method does require the initial cost and effort of making the first template accessible, but once done, accessibility is automatically included in every document created from that template.
• On-Demand Human Assistance. Alternative processes will be made available for on-site digital accessibility issues.
• Accessible Alternative Format. Making some documents accessible may be impractical. For example, a lengthy annual budget document could cost thousands of dollars to fully adapt because it contains many large, complex financial data tables. Even if these tables are made accessible, they might not fully meet the needs of users with disabilities. Sometimes, providing the data tables in an accessible alternative format, such as an Excel spreadsheet, can be less expensive for Gresham and more helpful for users with disabilities. Offering such a conforming alternative is permitted under the OIT Accessibility Rule and provides advantages over static PDF tables, such as the ability to sort and filter data.

Existing PDF Documents

The City of Gresham has a substantial library of existing PDF documents accumulated over many years. Remediating all of them is neither required nor practical.

The ADA Title II rule exempts two categories of existing documents from WCAG compliance requirements: archived web content that is no longer actively maintained; and pre-existing conventional electronic documents that are not currently used to apply for or access the City of Gresham's programs, services, or activities. The City will apply these exemptions systematically to reduce the universe of documents requiring remediation.

For documents that fall outside these exemptions, Gresham will prioritize remediation based on public impact, focusing first on documents that residents with disabilities are most likely to need. Remediation will be handled through a combination of approaches:

• Outsourced remediation services for high-priority documents requiring professional tagging. Gresham will identify vendors offering remediation services at competitive rates appropriate for straightforward public-facing documents.
• Accessible alternative formats where full remediation is impractical. For example, a complex budget document with large financial tables may be more useful to residents with disabilities as an accessible Excel spreadsheet than as a remediated PDF.
• In-house remediation. Simpler documents, such as straightforward Word-to-PDF conversions, can be made accessible by City staff using the PDF accessibility tools described in 3.4.1.

New PDF and Electronic Documents

Going forward, the City of Gresham's goal is to ensure that all new public-facing documents are accessible before they are posted. The City has adopted the following policy for new documents:

• Author-level validation. All new documents must be validated for accessibility using the accessibility tools built into the authoring application, such as Microsoft Word's accessibility checker, prior to submission for publication.
• Web Team review. Before any document is posted on a City website, it must be reviewed by the City's Web Team.
• Specialized remediation tools. The City will make PDF remediation software available to trained staff. Centralizing this expertise ensures that staff build proficiency over time and that remediation is applied consistently and efficiently. Documents exceeding the capacity of the internal team will be outsourced to a specialized document remediation vendor.
• Templated documents. For recurring documents with a consistent layout, such as meeting agendas and presentations, the City will explore working with its vendors to create accessible templates. Once a template is made accessible, every document generated from it inherits that accessibility automatically, eliminating the need for ongoing per-document remediation.

Training

Training is critical to the City of Gresham's efforts to meet its digital accessibility requirements. The City anticipates deploying two training components for its staff.

• Overview of Digital Accessibility. This training will be intended for all City Gresham employees. It will introduce staff to digital accessibility, the relevant laws that require it, and explain why making technology accessible to people with disabilities is essential for the City.
• Accessible Content and Document Creation. This module will focus on two groups. First, it will teach web content creators how to avoid the six errors described above in Web- and Cloud-Based Content Created by the City of Gresham. It will also teach students how to use free tools to evaluate content and ensure it complies with WCAG. This module will address the second group of staff and contractors who create electronic documents on behalf of the City and what these individuals need to know to help the City meet its obligations.

The City of Gresham will tailor this training to its specific workflows and tools, including its CMS and Microsoft Office environment.

Summary

The City of Gresham is implementing a strong plan for achieving digital accessibility. It has also established a repeatable process for handling new technologies and ensuring document accessibility. Soon, it will roll out a detailed training program to make sure Gresham staff and contractors understand how to stay compliant.

If you have any questions about Gresham's Digital Accessibility Plan, request assistance using our online form or call 503-618-3000.

Footnotes

1. 28 C.F.R. Section 35.130.
2. 89 Fed. Reg. 31,320 (Apr. 24, 2024).
3. 28 C.F.R. Section 35.200 et seq.
4. 28 C.F.R. Section 35.202.
5. Section 504's coverage extends far beyond the program receiving federal funding. After the Supreme Court's decision in Grove City College v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555 (1984), which limited Section 504's protections only to the specific program receiving funding, Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, which expanded the definition of a program or activity to cover the entire entity when any part of it receives federal funding.
6. 89 Fed. Reg. 40,066 (May 9, 2024).
7. 45 C.F.R. Section 84.84.
8. 28 C.F.R. Section 35.205.
9. VPATs and ACRs are tools commonly used by the federal government and other entities for comparing the accessibility of different IT products and services. Learn more, visit the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).