Balancing Transparency and Compliance: Lessons from Colorado Special Districts

By Mac Clemmens, CEO, Streamline

As new accessibility laws come into effect, many government agencies are facing difficult decisions about how to comply while maintaining transparency. A recent article in Colorado Politics highlighted a concerning trend: in an effort to avoid penalties of up to $3,500 under HB21-1110, some agencies are opting to remove public records from their websites entirely. This mirrors what happened in California when AB434 passed, leading to agencies, including CalFIRE, removing critical information like fire maps from public access. For transparency advocates, it was the digital equivalent of a book burning.

Accessibility shouldn’t come at the cost of transparency

At Streamline, we understand the pressures government agencies face. But there’s an important lesson here: accessibility shouldn’t come at the cost of transparency. That’s why the DOJ’s new guidance and the rules from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) include a provision for archived content. This allows agencies to retain access to important records while working towards full compliance. For more information on archived content, you can review the DOJ's definition.

For documents created before the cutoff date, Colorado’s HB21-1110 allows you to archive them rather than remove them completely. It’s possible to move the content to an archive section, or, like we did, solve this by adding a notification before accessing an inaccessible document — still allowing a user to access the information or request an accessible version. This way, you can continue to provide access to the public, while ensuring that you are meeting the accessibility requirements over time. 

Figure 1: new download prompt for archived files with known accessibility issues

Districts’ incredible progress towards the goal

It is worth celebrating that the smallest and most local form of government in Colorado has made incredible strides, going from less than 1% of documents being accessible to more than 500 districts that are now fully in compliance with HB21-1110, including the accessible document requirements.

More than 150 special district leaders, accessibility advocates, and technology leaders gathered in May 2024 at a website accessibility summit at the History Colorado Center in Denver to problem-solve, educate, and prepare for the July 1 deadline. Representative Ortiz, the author of HB21-1110, recognized each of the first 12 districts to be fully compliant in Colorado, along with Ann Terry, CEO of the Special District Association of Colorado. 

I can speak from personal experience that special districts have taken the mandate with the utmost seriousness and care. We have watched as they have remediated thousands of pages, learned from countless tutorial videos, collaborated with each other, and, against the odds, completely transformed the experience for users with disabilities. Organizations like the Special District Association of Colorado and Spencer Fane have dedicated enormous staff time to support districts large and small across the state. And organizations like the National Federation of the Blind have been steadfast in reminding us all the heartwrenching consequences of not being compliant, offered during testimony at the OIT hearings, from the user who had to listen to an entire PDF document be read to them one letter at a time.

Today, I’m proud to say that more than 500 of our districts fully comply with the law as articulated in our 7-point checklist for special districts. This doesn’t mean that every archived document is fully remediated, but there is, when eligible, a notice with the ability to request a remediated file while they work through their document backlog and continue to prioritize the content most important to their community.

Districts can—and are—creating a more accessible web

Yes, compliance is challenging, but it’s possible to create an accessible experience for everyone. By working together, we can create a web that is accessible to all without sacrificing transparency.

For more information on how to comply with the ADA laws in Colorado, see: Streamline Colorado Accessibility.

About the Author

Mac Clemmens is an ADA expert and the CEO of Streamline Software, Inc., regularly speaks on ADA best practices, and has won numerous awards for his work on website accessibility for government organizations. Streamline is a proud member and sponsor of the Special Districts Association of Colorado.