Source: United States Department of Justice
The Justice Department announced today that it secured a settlement agreement with Service Oklahoma, a state agency, to resolve its findings that the agency violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by maintaining a mobile application that is inaccessible to individuals with disabilities.
“When public entities make services available through mobile apps, they may not exclude people with disabilities by failing to make their technology accessible,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Through this agreement, Service Oklahoma will ensure their mobile apps comply with the ADA by removing barriers that prevent Oklahomans with disabilities from accessing public services. As more state and local governments turn to mobile apps for critical public services, the Justice Department will work to ensure that people with disabilities are guaranteed the ADA’s promise of equal access.”
The department investigated Service Oklahoma’s predecessor entity based on a complaint from a blind Oklahoma resident alleging that the Oklahoma Mobile ID Application is inaccessible to individuals with vision disabilities. In November 2023, the department issued a letter of findings concluding that the mobile app imposes critical accessibility barriers for people with vision disabilities. The department found that Service Oklahoma violates the ADA by denying people with disabilities equal access to the mobile app and by failing to ensure that communications with them are as effective as communications with others.
Under the agreement, Service Oklahoma will ensure that any mobile app that it creates, administers or maintains is accessible to individuals with disabilities and conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1, Level AA, which are industry guidelines for making web content accessible. Service Oklahoma will take other corrective actions, including soliciting accessibility feedback and requests from the public, retaining an ADA coordinator, providing ADA training to employees and reporting to the department.
This settlement agreement is part of the Civil Rights Division’s Tech Equity Initiative to combat disability discrimination that occurs through technology such as websites and mobile apps. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 (TTY 833-610-1264) or visit www.ada.gov. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. If you believe you’ve been discriminated against, you may file a complaint online at www.civilrights.justice.gov/.