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State of Colorado Accessibility Newsletter - March 2026

two young women using tablet computer at home

Update on the Federal Title II Rules

You may have heard discussions suggesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may delay the enforcement of the Federal Title II rules (ada.gov) to July 2027. It is critical that Colorado stays the course until we have the final decision from the federal government to ensure we are prepared for any changes that may arise.

Colorado Rules Are Already in Place

The most important thing to know is that a federal delay does not change our legal requirements here at home. In Colorado, we have our own laws that are independent of federal timelines.

  • The State Law Stands: House Bill 21-1110 (leg.colorado.gov) and the Colorado Technology Accessibility Rules (oit.colorado.gov) are currently in effect.
  • July 1, 2024 Deadline: This is the date Colorado’s accessibility standards become enforceable. Federal rules have no impact on our state deadline.
  • Reliable Standards: Both state and federal rules aim to make digital services accessible to everyone. Continuing your accessibility work not only ensures compliance with both federal and state laws.
  • Avoid the "Rumor Mill": We will provide updates as soon as the DOJ makes an official announcement. Until then, our current state roadmap is the only "source of truth." We are committed to being a resourceful partner by providing the most accurate information as it becomes available.
  • Protect Your Progress: Our state’s accessibility work is already having a positive impact. Stopping now would lose the momentum we’ve built with our vendors and our community.
  • Reduce Future Costs: Building accessibility now is much more efficient than trying to "rush" compliance later if federal requirements change again.
    Colorado is a leader in digital accessibility. No matter what happens at the federal level, our mission remains the same: providing technology that everyone can access in a Colorado For All.

Learn more about the differences between state and federal rules in our February 2026 update (oit.colorado.gov).

Cognitive Disabilities and the WCAG

By Rosa Calabrese, Senior Accessibility Trainer
Cognitive disabilities impact a person’s cognitive processing and mental functions, such as attention, memory, emotions, perception, thought, calculation, or psychomotor abilities. Cognitive disabilities can vary widely from one person to another, making it difficult to envision how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria address the needs of these people.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the creator of WCAG, notes seven guidelines that are important to creating accessible digital content for people with cognitive disabilities: 

  • Adaptable
  • Distinguishable
  • Enough Time
  • Navigable
  • Readable
  • Predictable
  • Input Assistance

Among these guidelines, I created an in-depth review of the significance of six success criteria to cognitive disabilities (Google Slides), including the following:

  • 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A): People with cognitive disabilities that impact attention or perception may have trouble discerning the meaning of colors when color alone is used to create meaning.
  • 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable (Level A): People with cognitive disabilities that impact attention, perception, or memory may have trouble accomplishing tasks quickly if they need more time to read at a slower speed or carefully read directions to avoid mistakes.
  • 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (Level A): People with cognitive disabilities that impact attention or perception in particular may have trouble concentrating on information that is next to continuously moving video or looping GIFs that cannot be turned off.
  • 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (Level AA): People with cognitive disabilities that impact attention, memory, perception, thought, or calculation may struggle to understand the reason why an error has occurred without additional context about how to fix it.
Male student with ADHD looks frustrated and tired while sitting on the floor

When “Accessible” Still Fails

By Cynde Vaughn, Community Steering Committee member
Digital accessibility is often described in technical language, but for those of us who live with disability, its impact is deeply personal. As a person who is DeafBlind, I know that access is not defined by how a product is described on paper. It is defined by whether I can actually use it.

This is why a VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, should be read carefully. A VPAT is meant to show how well a product, such as workplace software, meets accessibility standards. The inclusion of language such as “supports with exceptions” can be misleading. Those exceptions are not always small. In many cases, they involve the very features a person with a disability depends on:

  • For someone with vision loss, that may mean buttons are not labeled, leaving a screen reader unable to identify where to go or what to select.
  • For someone with hearing loss, it may mean captions are missing from a video, making key information inaccessible.
  • For someone like me, living with both vision and hearing loss, those barriers do not simply add up — they can make a product impossible to use.

It is a little like saying a driver uses their turn signal, stays in their lane, and follows the speed limit, but does not stop at red lights. No one would call that safe driving or want to travel on the same road. When the most critical rule is ignored, the rest offers little reassurance.

Accessibility is no different. If the features people rely on most do not work, “almost accessible” still leaves people behind. That is why accessibility cannot be measured by how near something comes to the standard. What matters is whether it truly works for the people who use it.

Four High-Impact, Low-Effort Tasks for Educators

By Laurie Kubitz, Senior Accessibility Consultant
If you only do these four things with your materials (Google Docs, Slides, Canvas pages), you have solved 80% of the common accessibility issues:

  1. Use styles, not fonts, to define page structure
    Stop manually highlighting text and making it 18pt and Bold. Use the built-in "Heading 1," "Heading 2," and "Title" styles.

    Why: A screen reader understands "Heading 1" as the main topic. It sees "18pt Bold" as just normal text, making navigation impossible.
     
  2. Name your links, don't use "click here"
    Never write: To view the assignment, click here.
    Always write: To view the assignment, open the Photosynthesis Lab Directions.

    Why: When a blind student is navigating, their screen reader can pull a list of only the links on the page. Imagine their confusion when that list just reads: Click here, Click here, Read more, Click here. Context is crucial.
     
  3. Alt-Text: The five-second rule for images
    Right-click your image and find “Alt Text” and write one short sentence describing what the image is teaching. Focus on why the image is there, for example, "A chart showing five years of temperature rise".

    Why: Students who can't see the screen need to know what the image is communicating. If it's just decorative (like a background squiggle), mark it as decorative using the "null" method (two quotation marks with no space).

  4. The 3rd party check: Vet your digital tools
    Before you assign a viral video or a cool new educational game, check for two essential features:

    1. Captions: Does the video have accurate captions? (Avoid "auto-generated" captions, as they are often inaccurate for technical subjects).
    2. Keyboard Navigation: Can a student play the game or navigate the site using only a keyboard, without a mouse?

    Why: This addresses the "Shared resources" and "source of vendors" roadblocks. You are the gatekeeper. Don't assign digital tools that lock students out.

Your New Accessibility Checklist (save this!)

  • Did I use headings (styles) for my headers?
  • Are my links descriptive (not "click here")?
  • Do my instructional images have alt text?
  • Do the captions for my assigned videos reflect the content?

Your plate is full, your time is valuable, and you care deeply about your students’ success. These four steps are small, powerful shifts in how you already work and by making these part of your routine, you are building a classroom where every student belongs.

Highlights From CSUN

By Karen Pellegrin, TAP Senior Manager
We're back from the 2026 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference with exciting highlights to share. Our team gained insights from accessibility leaders on how strategy, processes, change champions, emerging technologies and AI can affect digital accessibility. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Burgeoning Accessibility Laws and Colorado's Early Win: The accessibility landscape is expanding and new legislation is emerging globally (e.g., CA AB-2190 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov), ADA Title II (ada.gov), European Accessibility Act, Accessible Canada Act). Colorado was often commended as a "shining example" of effective accessibility legislation.
  • "Shifting Left" & Enhanced User Testing: The industry is moving from reactive accessibility efforts to proactive, early integration of accessibility ("Shift Left"). Organizations are reducing reliance on solely automated scanning, favoring active user testing with individuals with disabilities or hybrid models, framing accessibility as innovation, not just compliance.
  • AI and New Tech: AI was everywhere and had made its way into many assistive products, including smart glasses, high-tech white canes, mobile apps and multi-line braille devices. AI is also helping expedite back-end tasks like captioning, document remediation and developing quality alt text (still a work in progress). However, the experts stressed that human judgment remains crucial for auditing and content creation, even with AI adoption.
  • Star Sightings: Notable attendees included singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, accessibility expert Sheri Byrne-Haber, and author Molly Burke, who recently launched a new book, 'Unseen: How I Lost My Vision But Found My Voice', which was published with accessibility in mind (it uses the Braille Institute’s Atkinson Hyperlegible font). We also met with former Congresswoman and disability rights advocate Gabby Giffords to share news on Colorado’s digital accessibility efforts.

In all, the conference was a wonderful learning experience and showed that the future of accessible technology is brighter than ever.

Notable & Quotable

“If disabled people were truly heard, an explosion of knowledge of the human body and psyche would take place.”

- Susan Wendell, associate professor of Women's Studies