Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) established that local governments are prohibited from discriminating against individuals on the basis of a disability in spaces of public accommodation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has interpreted this to include online technology.
Colorado House Bill 21-1110 (HB 21-1110) requires local governments to meet full digital accessibility by July 1, 2024. Colorado House Bill 24-1454 (HB24-1454) establishes a one-year grace period that extends the current deadline for full compliance to July 1, 2025, under specific conditions. Public entities and state agencies must make a good faith effort towards compliance and create a progress-to-date report with quarterly updates. To this end, we are creating a completely new website with compliant content and have posted a spreadsheet detailing our conformance status.
Meeting accessibility standards is an ongoing process. The Town of Walden has created a new website to achieve this goal of maintaining an accessible website.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The Town of Walden Website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.
How can I request accommodations or provide feedback?
We welcome comments on how to improve this website’s accessibility for users with disabilities and requests for accommodations to any Town of Walden services.
To request accommodations or report inaccessibility, please contact:
Town of Walden, Town Clerk
- Phone: 970-723-4344
- Email: townofwalden@gmail.com
The Town of Walden is working on both remediation of existing digital content and assuring that new content meets the ADA standards. Our compliance plan aims to specify current issues and seek remediation. A checklist has been created to facilitate this process.
This is an evolving document that will allow website visitors to see the action steps being taken as well as track the progress. Due to funding and staffing limitations, remediating all digital content before the July 2024 deadline would cause an undue burden to the Town of Walden.
By prioritizing content and providing paths for content to be requested in alternative formats, we ensure equal access to our programs and services. For new content, content creators are responsible for developing and publishing content that meets best practices for digital accessibility.
If you are looking for a more detailed copy of the law WCAG 2.1 level AA then visit this site: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/