Columbus departments are being directed to catalogue and take ownership of the public-facing websites they run as part of the city's digital accessibility effort. A bulletin dated Oct. 5, 2026 says the city has assembled a master list of roughly 50 or more known external sites, and that the Department of Technology has started working with departments to confirm which unit is responsible for each site, name a point of contact, assess scope, settle a long-term strategy, and begin Silktide monitoring and remediation.
For every site, staff must record a planned action on a SharePoint list hosted at the ADA Digital Resource Center. The choices are migration to OpenCities (Granicus Websites & CMS), vendor-assisted remediation, or sunset and decommission. That step is due Nov. 20, 2026. Sites that stay live require a TechDesk ticket so they can be added to Silktide for scanning. Migration or decommissioning work is targeted for completion by April 2027.
Two benchmarks are set. An 80% Silktide score plus meaningful link text is due Dec. 31, 2026, covering Columbus.gov and external sites. A 70% score with no broken links is tied to Labor Day. Departments missing the year-end mark must join weekly accessibility office hours until they reach the minimum. The bulletin reports 15 external sites in Silktide, 6 at or above 70%.
The city also states that earlier undue burden considerations are no longer valid, that departments should not rely on prior City Attorney's Office approvals, and that a new submission process restarts in the first quarter of 2027. Questions about what must comply go to ADAhelp@columbus.gov; how-to questions go to techdesk@columbus.gov. Office hours are held Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to noon via Webex.