Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Colorado’s Accessibility Law HB21-1110 and How Lightspeed Systems Can Help

July 23, 2024

Colorado school districts have questions about HB21-1110, Lightspeed has answers—and solutions to simplify compliance with this new and important accessibility regulation.

1. What is HB21-1110, and why is it important for Colorado districts?

Answer: HB21-1110 is a new Colorado state law that mandates that all digital resources used by state or local government entities meet current accessibility standards. It ensures that people with disabilities are not excluded from receiving services or benefits due to lack of accessibility. For school districts, this means complying with guidelines set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to avoid penalties.

2. What do I need to do to comply?

Answer: State entities, including public school districts must:

Provide reasonable accommodations or modifications
Have a published accessibility statement
Provide evidence of making good faith progress on their plan to remove accessibility barriers

In order to meet the above guidelines schools and district will need to inventory all digital resources and applications in use and assess the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).

3. What are the consequences of non-compliance with HB21-1110?

Answer: Non-compliance can result in penalties such as injunctions, monetary damages, or fines up to $3,500 per infraction/app. (With more than 2,000 apps in use in an average district, those fines can add up quickly!) It’s crucial for districts to prioritize accessibility, and doing so will also help avoid legal repercussions.

4. Wasn’t the compliance deadline originally set for July 1, 2024?

Answer: Yes, recognizing the challenges involved, the Colorado general assembly passed HB24-1454 which extended the deadline to July 1, 2025. This grace period requires continued progress toward accessibility, provided districts demonstrate good faith efforts.

5. What needs to be done now to qualify as “good faith efforts” under HB24-1454?

Answer: According to the Colorado Office of Information Technology (OIT), a government entity may be eligible for this extension if they meet the following criteria:

Create a clear, easy-to-find process that is prominently displayed on all front-facing web pages for requesting redress for inaccessible digital products, including contact options that are not dependent on web access
Create and post on front-facing web pages a progress-to-date report that is updated quarterly and demonstrates concrete and specific efforts toward compliance with the OIT rules
Make strides toward resolution of a complaint of non-complianc

6. How can Lightspeed Systems assist districts in their good faith efforts?

Answer: Lightspeed Digital Insight™ helps district meet Colorado’s accessibility laws in these important ways:

A. Provides real-time inventory of apps in use by the district

The first step in ensuring all your apps and resources are compliant is making sure you know ALL the apps and resources in use. Districts can easily review their current technology landscape using Lightspeed Digital Insight. It provides a single view of edtech usage, allowing administrators to see which applications or online resources are used by students, classes, groups, or schools.

B. Identifying apps with public-facing Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) – critical to assessing accessibility alignment

After inventorying digital tools, districts need to assess each vendor’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). A vendor’s VPAT shares how accessible their applications or sites are to people with disabilities, and districts often review these documents to ensure their edtech tools meet accessibility standards. In working with Colorado districts, particularly Denver Public Schools, Lightspeed recognized that IT teams don’t have the time to manually confirm VPAT status for thousands of applications.

Lightspeed created the first inventory of commonly used applications with a public VPAT. District teams can search for this information directly within the App Activity report or Application Library in Lightspeed Digital Insight. With this tool, staff have a critical jumpstart on accessibility review, allowing them to more easily identify, prioritize, and address issues.

C. Report of public-facing VPAT’s

Districts can easily report on all applications in use and public VPAT status. Then use the information to create the required ‘progress-to-date report’ and post it on district websites or showcase on their public-facing approved apps list through Lightspeed Digital Insight.

Lightspeed Systems is committed to helping Colorado districts in their good faith efforts towards full compliance with HB21-1110. Let Lightspeed be your compliance partner. Learn more by scheduling a demo today.

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