Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Mario Castillo, City Council Member District H, Chair of the Technology and Innovation Committee, and I will call this meeting to order at 2 02 p.m.

And with me are colleagues, Councilmember Sally Alcorn and Vice Mayor Pro Tem Amy Peck, along with staff from Councilmember Jackson's office, Councilmember Panzarella's office, Councilmember Thomas's office, and Councilmember Ramirez's office.

Today we have two items on the agenda along with public comment if we have any speakers.

Our first presentation is going to focus on digital government accessibility.

And this is really thinking about as so much of what we do now as a city is digital facing.

What are we doing to be accessible to all uh Houstonians and as well as keeping up with federal compliance deadlines for public digital assets to meet level AA accessibility standards?

And so today we will hear from Angel Ponce, Director for the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, David Oppheim, Digital Platform and User Experience lead with the Mayor's Office of Communications, and Kalpana Pillai, Deputy CIO for IT applications for Houston Information Technology Services.

And when you all are ready to uh make your way to the podium, we will begin with our first presentation.

Hello and uh good afternoon, uh Chair Castillo and members of the of the uh committee.

Uh we're here to present an update on our citywide digital accessibility strategy and our pathway forward uh toward federal compliance under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

As you mentioned, uh, my name is Angel Ponce with the Department of Neighborhood's Office for People with Disabilities, and today uh we will share how Houston is building uh a sustainable, accessible, and transparent digital ecosystem for our Houston residents.

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To understand why digital accessibility is so crucial today, it helps to look briefly at how accessibility law has evolved over the last 60 years.

Uh in 1968, uh the Architectural Burials Act uh focused strictly on physical access to federal funded facilities like post offices and courthouses.

In 1993, uh the rehabilitation act, section 504 created a fundamental paradigm shift by framing exclusion as an legal discrimination and mandating program access across federal funded services.

What the disability community found is that uh organizations, including companies took advantage of this if they weren't receiving federal funding.

And so members of the disability community came together, and in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.

This act extended the civil rig protections into state and local governments, public accommodations, and as well as the public sector.

Today, federal courts and the U.S.

Department of Justice explicitly uh recognize the did uh the digital space, our websites, uh online portal uh payment portals, uh, and including our mobile apps as modern extensions of government programs.

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Currently, our public website and mobile applications serve as our modern public sphere.

Uh, digital environments are the primary front doors of to municipal services for paying utility bills, to viewing court dates, or checking emergency alerts.

Ensuring that equal uh digital access for residents and disabilities is just as vital today as building a physical ramp leading to the front doors of City Hall.

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On April 24 of 2024, the U.S.

Department of Justice published its final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It is important to emphasize who enforces these standards.

To satisfy this federal requirement, DOJ recognized the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WECAG 2.1 level A double level A as the explicit mandatory technical standard.

Recognizing the complexity of updating municipal digital infrastructure, federal enforcement timelines were extended for large public entities like the city of Houston.

Our formal compliance deadline is now April 26 of 2027.

However, our goal is not to wait until the midnight hour of this date, but to systemically build an inclusive digital footprint today.

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Perceivable, ensuring that information is accessible via tools like screen readers and high contrasts, operable, allowing seamless navigation using only keyboards and assistive devices, understandable, utilizing simple logical layouts in plain language and robust, functioning reliably across modern browsers, mobile devices, and screen readers.

These four key principles will guide the city of Houston through the implementation of our digital accessibility strategy.

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This pilot revealed three uh crucial operational insights.

One that true digital accessibility is challenging because content management is decentralized across multiple departmental webmasters and developers rather than a single team.

David will talk about how we are making changes to that now.

Automated scanner scanning software like Site Improve does capture uh barriers, but only about 30 to 40 percent of accessibility barriers.

As code scanning cannot determine if an image description makes sense or if a form is logically uh structured.

Consequently, real compliance requires human uh evaluation, including manual screen reader testing and human-centered design reviews.

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The digital assessment evaluates small samples from two primary primary digital entities.

The main city website, about 13 pages were sampled, and the Houston Public Library website, standalone.

You may be asking what is the difference between WECAG level A and WECAG level A.

Level A, for example, serves as the baseline requiring closed captions on all pre-recorded videos, such as the city promo clips or re or recorded announcements.

Level A, the target standard for the local government entities expands this requirement to live events.

All live cat uh webcasts of the city council meetings, for example, or public hearings must include real-time captions via automated tools or professional cart services.

Adopting level A ensures equal access and transparency for all community members, whether watching live or on demand.

In the main website, um we found that level A review met about 78% of um of accessibility.

The main city website met about 83% of accessibility with an overall rate of 80%.

Level A, 75% with an overall rate of 73%.

Here are some key takeaways.

Reliance solely on automated tools like site improved, although helpful does not fully capture and resolve barriers for users relying on assistive devices.

Formal usability testing and individuals with disabilities is necessary.

Next slide, please.

I'm going to pass it over to David.

Hi, everybody.