Due to a recent
Department of Justice (DOJ) ruling on web accessibility, most public-facing government web sites and content will have to be compliant with the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA standards by April 24, 2026. This technical specification includes rules regarding alt text, contrast levels, tab focus order, use of headers, captions for video/audio content, and much more. After the deadline, non-compliant governments will be liable to lawsuits for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Over the last year, Metro’s Data Resource Center has rebuilt its flagship GIS application,
MetroMap, because the old version was dependent on deprecated technology. Even before we learned of the DOJ ruling, a key goal of this process was to make the website accessible to everyone, including those with vision challenges. This can be a big lift, so I’d like to share our lessons learned in hopes of helping other government GIS practitioners as they take on this work. I’ll also give a brief demo of the new MetroMap, highlighting its accessibility features.
