State of Colorado Accessibility Newsletter - April 2026
Federal Accessibility Compliance Extended by One Year
The Department of Justice postponed the compliance dates for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by one year. The department released an interim final rule and a request for comments, which was published in the Federal Register on Monday, April 20.
Per the interim final rule:
"The compliance date for state and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more is extended from April 24, 2026 to April 26, 2027. The compliance date for public entities with a total population of less than 50,000, or any special district government, is extended from April 26, 2027, to April 26, 2028.”
What Does This Mean?
This means that in Colorado, despite the delay of the federal rules, we will continue to "keep calm and carry on" with the excellent accessibility efforts we're putting forth, remembering that we still have our own Colorado statute and rules to comply with. Keep doing the good work you have been doing and let’s continue our journey in making a Colorado for All.
2026 WebAIM Million Report
Each year, WebAIM reveals the #1 most prominent website accessibility barrier. Is your organization’s site one of the hundreds of thousands that have this year’s top accessibility issue?
According to the 2026 WebAIM Million Report, 83.9% of websites have low color contrast. Here are some steps you can take to remedy it:
- Use color plus another element to visually distinguish information differences, such as bold type, font size or patterns or shapes.
- Use colors that strongly contrast each other by comparing them using a tool like the WebAIM color contrast checker.
WebAIM’s annual report looks at the top-visited 1 million homepages to identify the most frequent issues. Other common barriers include:
- Missing "alt text" for images
- Forms without labels
- Links without descriptive text
You can learn how to fix these issues and more in the OIT TAP Web Accessibility How-To Guide.
Accessible Dashboards are Possible!
By Chelsea Cook, TAP Accessibility Consultant
As a space nerd, I had so much fun following the Artemis II crew to the moon and back and found one resource incredibly helpful: The Artemis II Mission Tracker. This accessible dashboard was built by Estonian developer and accessibility consultant Jakob Rosin, who is totally blind. The dashboard has the following features that allowed me to follow the mission:
- Real-time telemetry from the Orion spacecraft
- A link to the mission stream on YouTube
- Apparent positions of celestial objects
- An audio radar feature that allows users to sonically track orbits
- Clear structure, including proper headings and links that allow you to find the data you want and skip the rest.
Rosin’s tracker is proof that developers can make dashboards accessible. If you use ArcGIS, Esri has a guide on creating accessible dashboards using its software. The last point about testing your own dashboard with assistive technology is key!
Through the Artemis II Mission Tracker and real-time data application programming interfaces, along with watching the crew stream on lunar flyby day, I was able to experience “moon joy” alongside my fellow humans on Earth.
Reach out to the TAP team at oit_accessibility@state.co.us for help making your dashboards more accessible.
Tips for Accommodating Auditory Processing Disorder
By Rosa Calabrese, Senior Accessibility Trainer
Multiple neurodivergent conditions often cluster, so one person may have several coexisting conditions. For me, that means that in addition to my attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), I also likely have a couple of other conditions, including mild auditory processing disorder (APD).
APD is a cognitive condition but is sometimes classified as an auditory disability as it impacts one’s hearing perception. There are multiple versions and severities of APD, but for me, I often experience it as a difficulty in understanding spoken words in loud places because I cannot separate one sound from the next. That means that it can be really hard for me to participate in conversations when eating in loud restaurants, for example.
It also means that when I listen to multimedia with audio, whether it is a part of a movie, an online meeting, or a podcast, it can be very difficult for me to follow along if there is a lot of background noise or overlapping dialogue because I can’t separate out and interpret the spoken language.
How to design meetings for APD
Setting up meetings for folks with APD is a lot like accommodating other hearing disabilities. Following these steps can help:
- Provide captions and transcripts: These give users a second way to get information. This is also required by WCAG 1.2 rules.
- Reduce noise: Ensure recordings have little background noise.
- One at a time: Make sure only one person speaks at a time in videos or meetings.
To learn more about how to support different disabilities, join the Digital Accessibility Workshop.
Notable & Quotable
“I wish for a world that views disability, mental or physical, not as a hindrance but as unique attributes that can be seen as powerful assets if given the right opportunities.”
- Oliver Sacks, British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science and writer