Bill Text: NY S07912 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires state agencies and entities to ensure their websites are accessible to persons with disabilities by following certain protocol; requires the office of information technology services to provide a report to the governor and legislature every two years.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-05-16 - referred to governmental operations [S07912 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S07912-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7912

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 19, 2022
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen. MANNION -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Internet and Technology

        AN ACT to amend the state technology law, in relation to requiring state
          agencies and entities to  ensure  their  websites  are  accessible  to
          persons with disabilities

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section
     2  103-b to read as follows:
     3    § 103-b. Website accessibility. 1. The office shall adopt  a  protocol
     4  for websites maintained by or on behalf of a state agency or state enti-
     5  ty relating to website accessibility for persons with disabilities. Such
     6  protocol  shall  provide  for  agency  websites  to  adopt either of the
     7  following standards: (a) section 1194.22 of title thirty-six of the code
     8  of federal regulations or (b) the web content  accessibility  guidelines
     9  2.1  level AA, developed by the worldwide web consortium, or any succes-
    10  sor standards. The adopted protocol required by this section may  differ
    11  from  such  standards  in  specific instances when the office's designee
    12  determines, after consulting with experts in website design and  reason-
    13  able  accommodations  for  people with disabilities and the holding of a
    14  public hearing, that such differences will  provide  effective  communi-
    15  cation for people with disabilities, and that such differences are docu-
    16  mented  in  such  protocol. Such protocol shall be made available to the
    17  public online. This section shall not require  an  agency  to  take  any
    18  action  that would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of a
    19  service, program, or activity.
    20    2. No later than December thirty-first, two thousand  twenty-two,  and
    21  every  two  years  thereafter,  the  office designee shall submit to the
    22  governor and the legislature a written report that documents the compli-
    23  ance of websites maintained by or on behalf of state agencies  or  state
    24  entities  with  the protocol adopted pursuant to subdivision one of this
    25  section.
    26    § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    27  it shall have become a law.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13986-01-1