ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 1016

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 18, 2025

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1016.

      As reported, this bill requires that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA, or the most up-to-date version of the guidelines, be the accessibility standard for the websites of all State agencies, and requires that each website be configured in such a way that it can be navigated, viewed, and accessed on a smartphone, tablet computer, or similar mobile device.

      The WCAG guidelines are published by the Web Accessibility  Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium and make content accessible for people with disabilities.

      Under the bill, the Chief Technology Officer is required to establish the protocol by which a State agency can determine that its websites comply with the requirements. The Chief Technology Officer is required to certify each website’s compliance two years after the bill’s effective date and recertify compliance once every two years thereafter.

      As used in this bill, “State agency” means the Executive and Legislative Branch of the State, including, but not limited to, any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council, agency, or instrumentality thereof, or independent agency, public authority, or public benefit corporation.

      As reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 1016 is identical to Assembly Bill No. 3636, which was also reported by the committee on this date.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) estimates that this bill will increase State expenditures related to the provision of information technology services to State agencies by the Office of Information Technology by an indeterminate amount annually. Most of the cost increase will occur in the first two years following the effective date of this bill, which is the timeframe in which the Office of Information Technology will determine whether all agencies are in compliance with the bill’s provisions.

      For illustrative purposes, the analysis section of this document estimates potential expenditures based on prevailing information about the cost to make a website compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), federal accessibility legislation, and mobile device accessibility.