Equal access, but to less information: Kane County may reduce online board materials, to meet federal rule

With a deadline looming to upgrade the county’s website to comply with a federal rule governing accessibility to people with disabilities, Kane County Board members are considering whether to stop posting some meeting documents online.

Because if the county can’t guarantee equal access for everyone, it should not make the materials available online to anyone to avoid being accused of discrimination, officials have said.

“This is not the county’s choice to do this,” Kane County Board Chairman Corinne Pierog said.

The board is expected to vote April 14 on a resolution that only ADA-compliant board and committee materials, such as agendas, resolutions and ordinances, will be posted on the website.

The issue

“Our county (board) packets are one of our bigger challenges,” Roger Fahnestock, the executive director of information technologies and building management, said.

“There is no magic bullet for publishing all that content without going through it (page by page).”

Board packets are PDFs, sometimes more than 1,000 pages, and include images of documents, maps, graphics, photos, PowerPoint presentation slides and more.

At issue is a federal rule for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The rule, adopted in 2024, goes into effect at the end of April for governments with populations of 50,000 or more. It goes into effect in April 2027 for smaller governments.

It requires almost every aspect of public-facing materials on government websites and apps to be equally accessible for both people with disabilities and those without. It set a technical standard called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA.

Many people with vision disabilities use devices to read screens, including ones that read materials aloud.

Materials may need certain coding or design to comply. For example, a photo may need an alternative-text field filled out, describing what is in the photo. There are also standards about contrast in text.

Kane’s IT department has been working with other county departments and elected officials about training workers to produce ADA-compliant materials, Fahnestock said.

But some of the materials the board receives are not produced by the county, such as a bid from a vendor or a PowerPoint from a consultant, according to Fahnestock. Or there are materials containing handwritten notes and bid tabulations.

Trek to the office

The county is not required to post supporting materials online, according to a spokesman for the Illinois attorney general’s office.

“The Open Meetings Act only requires public bodies to post an agenda and a notice at least 48 hours before a meeting. It does not require the posting of agenda packets or other related materials, which are defined as public records under FOIA,” said April McLaren, deputy press secretary.

If the resolution passes, people who want to read full packets will have to ask for a copy to be sent to them, or go to the county board office in Geneva to read a paper copy. Pierog is setting up a reading room there.

“It seems challenging for the general public. Why are we breaking something that works?” Pierog said.