Law / United States / 
Puerto Rico
Public entity websites: universal design, accessibility guides and complaint link (Ley para Garantizar el Acceso de Información a las Personas con Impedimentos)
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding government bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Defensoría de las Personas con Impedimentos del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
- Obligation class
- Governance
What it requires
- If you are a public entity of Puerto Rico, including a municipality, that has or is creating, implementing, changing or updating a website, develop the page and its electronic documentation through universal design so that people with or without disabilities can read them (Ley 229-2003, Art. 5).
- The head of the entity must ensure that the information on the website is designed to universal design parameters or, where necessary, offered in alternate formats (Ley 229-2003, Art. 4).
- Use the Accessibility Guides and the content-management templates prepared by the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service and the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program, and where you cannot use the templates, make sure the page complies with the Act and the guides (Ley 229-2003, Art. 5).
- Meet the Act's requirements even when you hire a private company to build, update or change the site (Ley 229-2003, Art. 5).
- Post on the website a link to the complaint form on the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities' website (Ley 229-2003, Art. 8).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What this law does
Law 229 of 2003 requires every public entity of the Commonwealth, including municipalities, that has or develops a website to ensure the page and its electronic documentation are developed through universal design so that people with or without disabilities can read them. The head of each public entity must ensure that the information on its website is designed to universal design parameters or, where necessary, offered in alternate formats.
A public entity must use the Accessibility Guides and the content-management templates that the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service prepares with the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program. The Innovation and Technology Service grants a validation logo certifying an entity's compliance with the guides and with the Act. Every public entity must link its website to the complaint form on the website of the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities.
The Ombudsman may impose administrative fines of up to $2,500 on the head of a noncompliant entity after notice and a hearing. The Act was approved on , and its Articles 4 and 5 took effect one year after approval.
As first enacted, Article 5 required a public entity's website and electronic documentation to be designed in universal language readable by assistive technology programs, and the Act named no accessibility guides, templates, validation logo, contract clause or website complaint link. The consolidated text incorporates amendments by Ley 154-2016 and Ley 75-2019, so the provisions this entry describes came into force on different days.
The Electronic Government Act separately requires government websites to be developed through universal design under the parameters of Law 229 of 2003, so that people with or without disabilities can read them.
When LexLint raises it
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