(a) Effective April 18, 2020, unless an exception is
approved by the agency head or an exemption has been made for specific
technologies pursuant to §213.17 of this title, all new or changed
web pages must comply with:
(1) the standards referenced in US Section 508 Appendix
C Chapter7 §702.10 (WCAG 2.0 Level AA excluding Guideline 1.2
Time Based Media):
(A) Agencies shall consider the use of these standards
for new websites or web applications prior to the effective date;
or
(B) may continue to use US Section 508 standards published
in the Federal Register on December
21, 2000, subpart B §1194.22, paragraphs (a) through (p), excluding
paragraphs (b) and (k) prior to the effective date;
(2) the standards and specifications described in this
section; and
(3) the standards and specifications applicable to
a state agency's accessibility policy described in §213.41 of
this title.
(b) Based on a request for accommodation of a webcast
of a live/real time open meeting (Open Meetings Act, Texas Government
Code, Chapter 551) or training and informational video productions
which support the institution of higher education's mission, each
institution of higher education must consider captioning and alternative
forms of accommodation for videos posted on state websites. Refer
to §206.1 of this chapter for definitions for Alternate Formats
and Alternate Methods.
(c) When compliance cannot be accomplished for an EIR,
an alternative version of the page, form, application, document, or
other EIR with equivalent information or functionality, must be provided
to make a website comply with the provisions of this section. The
alternative version must remain synchronized to the primary EIR and
updated whenever the primary EIR changes.
(d) Effective September 1, 2006, unless an exception
is approved by the agency head or an exemption has been made for specific
technologies pursuant to §213.37 of this title, all new or changed
web page/site designs must be tested by the institution of higher
education using one or more EIR accessibility validation tools, including
but not limited to the use of automated methods, manual methods or
assistive technologies to validate compliance with this chapter.
(e) An institution of higher education must establish
an accessibility policy as described in §213.41 of this title
which must include criteria for monitoring its website for compliance
with the standards and specifications of this chapter.
(f) Institutions of higher education websites and web
applications should be designed to support:
(1) variations in internet connection speeds and emerging
communications protocols and technologies; and
(2) the ability to adapt content to end user devices
such as mobile phone, tablets, or other devices which are available
to the general public.
(g) The Department shall assist in consultation with
ITCHE with establishing statewide agency website accessibility compliance
goals for institutions of higher education, and track progress towards
achieving those goals.
|