If a government website is not accessible, there is a complaint and a fine

It is the right to have an agency’s website work with you. If you use a screen reader, a magnifier, an adapted keyboard or any other assistive technology, and an agency’s or your municipality’s website will not let you complete the procedure, that is not bad luck: it is a breach of a law that has a name, an office to complain to and a fine. And the Act itself requires that entity to put the complaint-form link on its own site.

The Act defines “Person with a Disability” as “every person who has a physical, mental or sensory impairment that substantially limits one or more essential life activities and who requires assistive technology to facilitate their dealings or activities through the websites of public entities.” To file the complaint, Article 8 uses a broader formula: “Any citizen affected by non-compliance with this Act’s provisions may file a complaint.”

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Who is bound: agencies, corporations and municipalities

   The definition is broad and worth having at hand when you claim. “Public Entity” means “the agencies, departments, subdivisions, instrumentalities, offices, programmes and public corporations of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; including the municipalities.” Article 5 repeats the municipalities point so there is no doubt: “Every entity of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including its municipalities, that has a website on the Internet or is in the process of creating, implementing, modifying or updating one.”

2. 2

   Step 2: The duty falls on a person with a name and a post

   Article 4 does not speak of the agency in the abstract: “The Secretary, Head, Officer, Director, Mayor or person in charge of the entity must ensure that the information on its website is designed following universal design parameters or, if necessary, in alternate formats.” The same list of posts reappears in the penalties article, and it is on those persons that the fine may fall.

3. 3

   Step 3: What accessible means, per the Act

   The Act defines “Universal Design” as “a design strategy for developing environments, products, technologies and information and communication services that are accessible, understandable and easy to use by all consumers or the greatest possible number of users, regardless of their age and abilities, in the most generalized, independent and natural way possible,” so as to minimize “the need to resort to adaptations or specialized solutions.” The concrete technical standard lives in the Accessibility Guidelines, which we did not read and therefore do not reproduce.

4. 4

   Step 4: The agency must carry the complaint link on its own site

   This Article 8 detail is the most useful and the most breached: “it is provided that every public entity establish on its website a link to the Complaint or Petition Form available on the website of the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities, so that every citizen affected by non-compliance with this Act may also file the corresponding complaint electronically.” If that link is missing, that itself is part of what you can point to.

5. 5

   Step 5: Where the complaint goes

   Article 8 names the office and the enabling act: “The Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities shall be charged with overseeing compliance with this Act. Any citizen affected by non-compliance with this Act’s provisions may file a complaint with the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities, under Act 158-2015, and any other action available at law.” That last phrase matters: the complaint does not foreclose other legal actions. We did not read Act 158-2015, so we publish no deadline or procedure for that complaint.

6. 6

   Step 6: The fine: up to $2,500, after notice and hearing

   Article 10 is short and concrete: “The Defender of Persons with Disabilities is empowered to impose administrative fines up to a maximum of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), after notice and hearing, on any Secretary, Head, Officer, Director, Mayor or person in charge of any of the entities that fails to comply with this Act’s provisions.” And it says where the money goes: “The funds collected under this penalty shall be allocated in their entirety to the Special Fund of the Puerto Rico Technological Assistance Program created by Act No. 264 of August 31, 2000.” The Defensoría must notify those fines to the PRATP within a term not exceeding thirty (30) working days.

7. 7

   Step 7: The clause the web contractor’s agreement must carry

   This helps when an agency answers that a private company built the site. The Act closes that exit: “every public entity that contracts a private or external entity for the construction, maintenance and updating of its websites shall establish as a requirement for contracting such services a clause of compliance with this Act’s provisions.” And the same article ends: “Non-compliance with this provision shall carry the imposition of the corresponding fines, as provided in this Act.”

8. 8

   Step 8: The validation logo and where the information must live

   Article 6 gives the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service, in coordination with the Puerto Rico Technological Assistance Program, the duty to develop and annually review the accessibility guidelines, and “the responsibility of granting a logo validating the agency’s compliance.” That logo “shall have an expiration term to be established by the corresponding regulation.” The same office must centralize on its website the Act, the guidelines, links to the validation tools, the templates and the minimum criteria, and that information “shall be displayed simultaneously in a link with the websites of the Technological Assistance Program and of the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities.”

The complaint goes to the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities under Act 158-2015, and the non-complying entity itself must carry on its site a link to that office’s Complaint or Petition Form. The Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service, with the Puerto Rico Technological Assistance Program, develops the accessibility guidelines and grants the validation logo. The Act also says the complaint is filed “and any other action available at law,” so it does not close other routes.

• Thinking municipalities are outside: the definition of public entity includes them, and Article 5 repeats it.
• Accepting that “a private company built the site”: the contract had to carry a compliance clause with this Act.
• Believing it covers only the home page: the Act speaks of the website and of the electronic documentation.
• Not looking for the complaint-form link on the entity’s own site: the Act requires it to be there.
• Assuming the complaint forecloses other actions: the Act says “and any other action available at law.”
• Assuming the fine falls on the agency in the abstract: the Act empowers fining the Secretary, Head, Officer, Director, Mayor or person in charge.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Portal de Servicios del Gobierno de Puerto Rico (PR.gov)

  PR.gov

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov