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AMA
Weru Lawrence. Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility. The ENABLE Model website. Published 2025. Accessed 2026-05-16. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting

APA
Weru, L. (2025). Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility. The ENABLE Model. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting

MLA
Weru, Lawrence. "Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility." The ENABLE Model, 2025, https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting.

Chicago
Weru, Lawrence. "Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility." The ENABLE Model. 2025. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting.

BibTeX

@misc{enable2025requirement-setting,
              author = {Weru, Lawrence},
              title = {Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility},
              year = {2025},
              url = {https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting},
              note = {The ENABLE Model}
            }

Set Requirements that Include Accessibility

Role in the ENABLE Model​

Setting requirements is the first and most fundamental act of care. It defines accessibility as a core obligation -- not a discretionary add-on. The absence of early mandates is often the root cause of systemic inaccessibility.

Without this stage, all subsequent acts -- design, development, testing -- lack structure. Early neglect here multiplies downstream burdens.

Why it matters​

Requirements set the foundation. Without codified expectations around accessibility, every subsequent action (design, development, testing) operates in ambiguity or neglect. Mandating inclusion from the outset prevents exclusion from being baked into infrastructure.

Grounding​

The Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 established the core U.S. legal frameworks that digital accessibility requirements now flow through.12 The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities extended accessibility standard-setting globally by requiring states to develop and monitor minimum accessibility standards across information, communications, and other public-facing services.3 The European Accessibility Act now sets common accessibility requirements for e-commerce, banking, passenger transport, and other covered products and services across the EU.4

WCAG, maintained by the W3C, provides the international technical benchmark that many laws and policies reference.5 ISO/IEC 30071-1 identifies accessibility work at both organizational and system-development levels, reinforcing that requirement-setting is not the same thing as downstream implementation.6

WebAIM's annual analysis of the top one million home pages found that 95.9% had detectable WCAG failures in 2026, reflecting how reliably accessibility breaks when requirements are missing or weak at the start.7

Government Technology's News Staff tracked the DOJ's 2024 rule as a concrete compliance event for state and local governments.8

James Charlton's Nothing About Us Without Us identifies dependency and powerlessness as core mechanisms of disability oppression and locates self-determination in disabled people deciding what affects their lives.9 Accessibility requirements fail at the moment of drafting when disabled people are absent from the room where standards, procurement rules, and internal policies get written.

In the news

Justice Department Finalizes Rule Requiring State and Local Governments to Make their Websites Accessible (April 24, 2024)
-- U.S. Department of Justice

  • The DOJ finalized a historic rule under ADA Title II requiring all state and local government websites and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by 2026-2027. This rule transforms accessibility requirements from informal guidance into enforceable mandates, setting a precedent for legal protections that could extend to private sector websites.

The EAA comes into effect in June 2025. Are you ready? (June 28, 2025)
-- European Commission

  • The European Accessibility Act became law across all EU member states, requiring e-commerce services, banking, transportation, and digital products to meet accessibility standards. The EAA applies to any company selling to EU consumers, regardless of location, making accessibility requirements a baseline for global market access.

OMB M-24-08: Strengthening Digital Accessibility and the Management of Section 508 (December 21, 2023)
-- Office of Management and Budget

  • The OMB issued guidance requiring all federal agencies to designate Section 508 program managers, publish accessibility statements on all websites, and incorporate accessibility into agency policies. This directive treats accessibility requirements as a core obligation, not a discretionary add-on.

Examples​

  • Use institutional policies such as Section 508 in U.S. federal procurement to require accessibility.
  • Apply ADA standards in state services
  • Adopt UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) globally
  • Incorporate WCAG 2.2 compliance in design contracts
  • Bake accessibility into definition of done for all features
  • Use procurement language that mandates WCAG compliance
  • Use compliance frameworks like VPATs in vendor review

Care sounds like​

"Our speech recognition AI must be usable by people who stutter."
"We must write procurement language that makes accessibility non-negotiable."
"Let's align this project's definition of done with accessibility standards."

Neglect Sounds Like​

"Accessibility is not a deliverable."
"It's not legally required for our sector."
"We'll add it later if we have time."
"It's not in the spec."

Real-world Scenario​

A municipal procurement office updates its RFP templates to require vendors to submit a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). This shifts accessibility from an optional concern to a required deliverable -- forcing every bidder to articulate their plan.

Footnotes​

  1. 42 U.S. Code § 12182 - Prohibition of discrimination by public accommodations ↩

  2. Section508.gov: FAR Updated to Add Revised Section 508 Standards for Information and Communication Technology ↩

  3. United Nations: Article 9 - Accessibility ↩

  4. European Commission: European Accessibility Act (EAA) ↩

  5. W3C: WCAG 2 Overview ↩

  6. ISO/IEC 30071-1:2019 ↩

  7. WebAIM: The WebAIM Million - The 2026 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages ↩

  8. News Staff, Government Technology, DOJ Mandates Accessibility on State, Local Gov Websites ↩

  9. James Charlton, Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment (University of California Press, 2000) ↩


Manifestations

The following manifestations are associated with this ENABLE Model location:


Edited by Lawrence Weru S.M. (Harvard)

Disclaimer

The ENABLE Model draws on the principles of anthropology and the practice of journalism to create a public ethnography of accessibility, documenting how people intervene or compensate for accessibility breakdowns in the real world. Inclusion here does not imply endorsement. It chronicles observed use -- how a tool, organization, or strategy is actually used -- rather than how it is marketed. References, when provided, are for verification and transparency.


📚 Cite this page

AMA
Weru Lawrence. Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility. The ENABLE Model website. Published 2025. Accessed 2026-05-16. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting

APA
Weru, L. (2025). Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility. The ENABLE Model. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting

MLA
Weru, Lawrence. "Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility." The ENABLE Model, 2025, https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting.

Chicago
Weru, Lawrence. "Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility." The ENABLE Model. 2025. https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting.

BibTeX

@misc{enable2025requirement-setting,
              author = {Weru, Lawrence},
              title = {Set (Requirements) that Include Accessibility},
              year = {2025},
              url = {https://enablemodel.com/docs/builder-side/requirement-setting},
              note = {The ENABLE Model}
            }