I’ve seen a lot of social media hype around the improved accessibility of the new White House website. So, for today’s daily frequent11y newsletter, I read a couple of articles to find out more:

Under Trump, WhiteHouse.gov was a disaster. Biden’s team revamped it in 6 weeks

• This article looks at some of the new features of whitehouse.gov. There’s a high contrast dark mode, and a toggle for increasing the global font size. The team behind it have also worked hard to make the site load fast, [and were even responsive to feedback from our own Matt Hobbs]. Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft, reviewed the site for accessibility and found no issues, though more can always be done, such as adding sign language to videos.

What does the Biden Presidency mean for accessibility?

• Karl Groves does some navel-gazing at what the Biden Presidency might mean for accessibility more widely. Currently, 20 to 40 ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) lawsuits are filed in US Federal Courts every day for accessibility violations on websites and mobile apps. Many, Karl argues, are opportunistic in nature.
• What muddies the waters further is that there’s no official standard for ADA compliance. In practice, settlements or judgements mostly measure against WCAG 2.0/2.1 at AA level, but Karl expects Biden’s administration to clarify the technical requirements for ADA (after – he says – the Obama administration deferred it). He also expects further momentum around Project Civic Access.

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