Our View of the Legislature – Technology for People with Disabilities
2025 Virginia General Assembly
February 20, 2025
Our annual state legislative session is in its final week. All committee meetings have concluded. The House and the Senate are now working to resolve differences in various bills and in the budget.
Bills relating to technology for people with disabilities have met with some small successes. Here at the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, we know that greater access to technology for people with disabilities means greater access to independence and self-determination. Here are some significant technology bills:
Two similar bills will require any individualized education program for a student with a disability who uses augmentative and alternative communication to describe and document that use, as well as document any support needs, prior to the provision of instruction. The bills also have training timelines. HB 2219 (Tran) was approved by the House and amended slightly in the Senate Committee on Education. SB 1034 (Pekarsky) was approved by the Senate, and amended by the House. The two sides are insisting on their version of the bill, so the issue will be sent to a committee of conference to try to work out a compromise.
For many years, Delegate Tran has been promoting a bill to update the Information Technology Access Act to improve digital accessibility for all persons with disabilities. This year, her HB 2541 is moving through the process well. The requirements in HB 2541 apply to government and public entities. The bill requires the appointment of a digital accessibility coordinator who is responsible for developing and implementing the entity’s digital accessibility policy. The bill has delayed effective dates of April 24, 2026, and April 26, 2027. The bill was approved by the House and was included in the House budget proposal. The Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology made some technical amendments to the bill and referred it to the Senate Finance Committee. There is a fiscal impact statement placing a price tag of about one million dollars on the proposal. The fate of the bill will be determined by the conference budget negotiations.
dLCV is available to educate policymakers about the impact of ongoing legislation on people with disabilities. If you know of something we should be following, please let us know at ga@dlcv.org