Comment on FR Doc # 2026-07663
Anonymous AnonymousSupportIndividual
Summary: The commenter argues that local governments will be unable to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA requirements because major technology vendors, such as Granicus, do not yet have the necessary technology to support them. They support extending the compliance dates to avoid a wave of lawsuits against government entities caused by these vendor limitations.
I understand the reasoning behind the WCAG 2.1 AA regulations, but for things like audio descriptors, the technology is not there. For example, one of Americas largest government meeting live streaming platforms, Granicus, cannot support the requirement. Even days before the regulations were to kick in they were still "working" on a solution. So while Granicus dragged their feet and in my opinion were totally out of their depth, local governments would have been open to unlimited lawsuits as we would all have failed to meet the new WCAG requirements do to this one vendor who has bought up all its competitors over the past 15 years. I guarantee when we get close to the new deadline we will be right back in the same boat with vendors that cannot support the requirements, and we are all left holding the bag. Perhaps something can be done to make it a requirement for the technology suppliers to be compliant. All we can do in local government is complain to them, but they aren't the ones that will be named in the lawsuits.