AB 434 certification

Aricia

I am having difficulty understanding the legalese of AB-434. Perhaps you can break this down for me so I do this right by answering some questions:

• Who is the Chief Information Officer: the Director of Technology at the state level, the state chancellor's office level, our college district level or at my college level?
• Is the form in part b already created at one of the levels above us or are we creating it at the college level?
• If the latter, is there a template to help us create the form correctly?

Again, I am so thankful that you have provided this resource for the colleges to use when we are in need of guidance.
Thank you,
Aricia

Gian

Hi
I think this is best answered by Sean Keegan. I have assigned the question to him.
Cheers
Gian

Sean_Keegan

Hello Aricia,

First, as you already know, I must disclose that I am not a lawyer and so cannot provide a legal interpretation of the AB 434 legislation (now CA Government Code 11546.7). What is also unclear to me is to what extent this law applies to California Community Colleges; that is, it applies to state agencies and state entities as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 11546.1. Here is that section below:

(from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?division=3.&chapter=5.6.&pa....)

(e) (1) For purposes of this section, “state agency” means the Transportation Agency, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of Veterans Affairs, Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, Natural Resources Agency, California Health and Human Services Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and Department of Food and Agriculture.
(2) For purposes of this section, “state entity” means an entity within the executive branch that is under the direct authority of the Governor, including, but not limited to, all departments, boards, bureaus, commissions, councils, and offices that are not defined as a “state agency” pursuant to paragraph (1).
(f) A state entity that is not defined under subdivision (e) may voluntarily comply with any of the requirements of Sections 11546.2 and 11546.3 and may request assistance from the Department of Technology to do so.


So, all that to say, I would inquire with your college/district general counsel as to what extent this law applies to your institution.

Separately, however, I would say it is a excellent strategic decision to go through the process of reviewing your public-facing web content and having a designated individual "sign-off" on the website's level of accessibility conformance. If anything, the discussion will help identify exactly who the responsible individual(s) may be at your institution.

In terms of what the certification looks like, here is a sample document that was created by the CA Dept of Technology to address this issue:
https://cdt.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SIMM-25B_2018-0725.docx

There is also a Web Accessibility Checklist (see https://www.dor.ca.gov/Content/DorIncludes/documents/Ab434/Web-Accessibility-Checklist.docx) that was created by the Dept of Rehabilitation to act as a "checklist" in determining if the website meets the appropriate standard. However, checklists alone are not a sufficient method for determining if a website is actually accessible. This is why we encourage colleges to use the Help Desk to conduct mini-accessibility reviews on 5-10 pages. This can help you jump start the process of identifying where there may be accessibility issues and address any accessibility errors within your website template or page content. Let us know if you have any questions about the mini-accessibility reviews conducted via the Help Desk.

Hope this answers your questions. Please feel free to follow-up as needed.

Take care,
Sean