Extended Website ADA Compliance

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IT Governance Business Case Compliance Business Case Year 2 Funding: Website ADA Compliance Communications Department

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Background New Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements are coming into effect April 24, 2026. The City purchased new software to facilitate immediate compliance: -

AudioEye for remediating web pages

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Allyant for remediating PDFs

Technology Solutions Project Management Office (TS PMO) is leading short-term remediation efforts, and beginning long-term compliance efforts focused on best practices and accountability.

Current policy assigns Web Managers to each department, responsible for ensuring all compliance for their department's published web content. This policy has never been enforced until recently, so Web Managers and Web Editors are undergoing re-training, and an accountability structure is being developed.

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Current Business Problem The City lacks the capacity needed to ensure long-term ADA compliance after the initial PMO-supported push. It lacks both ongoing funding for the current stopgap tools, and the best practices and accountability needed for long-term compliance.

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Current Pain Points • No funding beyond FY26 for remediation tools • Best practices not yet established for long-term compliance • Stopgap tools still time-intensive for PDF remediation • Communications lacks long-term management capacity • Web Managers still adjusting to new accountability • Web editors unaccustomed to accessibility standards

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Future State Benefits • Funded tools until practices mature • Best practices adopted, replacing need for stopgap tools • Stopgap tools includes automated PDF remediation • Dedicated compliance manager • Web Managers ensure departmental compliance • Web Editors consistently apply accessibility standards

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Strategic Alignment

City Objective 3.3: Expand Resident Access to Digital Resources and Community Programs/Services

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Analysis and Recommended Solution

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Solution Analysis •

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Compliance Risk after 2026. Subscriptions to AudioEye & Allyant expire EOY 2026; without action, City web pages revert to non-compliance.

Capacity Gap. Achieving sustainable compliance requires an estimated 950 staff hours annually for training, accountability & process improvements.

Communications has only ~250 annual hours available, leaving a 700-hour gap that cannot be closed under current staffing.

Need for Interim Measures. Until best practices & accountability are fully implemented, continued reliance on stopgap tools is necessary to maintain compliance during the transition period.

Sustainable Compliance Requirements

Annual Recurring Hours

Initial/ongoing ADA training

100

PDF to HTML training

100

Quarterly audits

100

Remediation oversight

400

Ongoing support to editors

200

Enforcement

50

Total

950

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Solution Analysis • New ADA Tool. Our website provider CivicPlus has acquired a new tool for PDF remediation in addition to Allyant Feature

DocAccess

Allyant

Automated PDF Remediation

✅

⚠️

HTML Conversion

✅

❌

Native Integration

✅

✅

$60,415

$24,433

Annual Cost

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Recommended Solution: Extend funding for stopgap solutions AudioEye & DocAccess

Description

Pros

Cons

Extend AudioEye licensing & adopt DocAccess to ensure automated compliance until accessibility process is established

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Provides compliance coverage while content governance is being finalized AudioEye converts web pages to compliant formatting DocAccess auto- converts PDFs into ADA-compliant web pages

Additional staff availability needed to ensure long-term ADA compliance

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TS Architecture Review The recommended solution meets the architectural standards for the City of Durham.

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Cybersecurity Review The recommended solution meets the cybersecurity standards for the City of Durham.

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Recommended Solution - Project Financial Estimate COST ESTIMATES

FUNDING

Implementation Costs (Hours)

Post Implementation Run Costs (Hours)/ KTLO

Internal TS Department:

100 hours

950 hours

Business Analysis

12 hours

Internal Labor New FTE – Year 1 Costs

$0.00

Architecture Office

3 hours

Project One Time Costs (External)

$0.00

Cybersecurity

5 hours

*Total Project Funding Requested for Year 1

$88,685.00

Project Management Office

120 hours

**Total Project Funding Requested for Year 2+

$88,685.00

Description

Departmental Funding Amount:

$0

Labor $ (Hours)

Communications

25 hours

950 hours for sustainable solution

Funding Requested (Y/N):

** Years 3+ funding may not be needed if staffing is retained; will confer with Comms for future needs

External Labor (professional services) Non-Labor $ Software – AudioEye (10% inflation) Software – DocAccess (10% inflation)

$28,270 $60,415

$60,415

* Total Project Funding Requested Year 1 includes New FTE Labor, External Labor and Non Labor

Communications Director confirmed funding is not available

Y

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Risk Identification Description of Risk

Risk Impact (High/Medium/Low)

Vendor performance

Low

Y

N

Cyber Security

Low

Y

N

Project Team Turnover

Low

Y

N

Poor Execution

Low

N

N

Mitigated (Y/N) Contingency(Y/N)

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Mitigation Risk (Costs) •

N/A

Contingency Risk (Costs) •

N/A

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Our ask We are asking the IT Governance Steering Committee to approve and score the business case to extend AudioEye & DocAccess funding to maintain Communications' compliance while new policies are established. If approved, the business case will be submitted to the City Manager for final approval.