AUGUSTA — City officials plan to have the “Augusta!” logo redesigned so any city materials it adorns, including online digital materials, can be read by people with visual disabilities and comply with looming federal accessibility law changes.

The city of Augusta logo will not comply with rules coming in 2027 under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a city official. The logo can be difficult to decipher for those with visual impairments or who use assistive or adaptive technology, such as a screen reader. Courtesy of city of Augusta

The stylized, red swoopy logo written in cursive and incorporating wavy blue lines meant to evoke the Kennebec River can be difficult or impossible for people with visual impairments or who use assistive technology to read. And other documents, such as the annual city budget, and fonts used by city officials can also be hard for some people to read. That makes those documents inaccessible to some people with those types of disabilities and, starting in 2027, would put the city in violation of newer Americans with Disabilities Act rules, according to Haley Gauvin, the city’s communications and marketing director.

Gauvin said it’d be good for the city to update its logo, fonts, letterhead and other documents now to get ahead of the coming ADA requirements, and make city documents more uniform and using the same “brand” across different departments. But also because it will make the city’s documents available to people with disabilities. And, she said, that’s a sizeable part of the city’s population.

Gauvin said one in six of the city’s residents need Americans With Disabilities Act assistance with accessibility in some form, or about 3,500 people. And just as the city must provide ramps and other accommodations to ensure its buildings are accessible to all citizens, even those with disabilities, it must also take steps to ensure its documents are fully accessible, as well.

Seeking to address concerns previously expressed by councilors when they discussed the issue in late January, that the then-new presidential administration of Donald Trump could change the looming ADA rules and, if it does, the city would have wasted effort and money, Gauvin said the new rules were first enacted by Trump’s administration in his previous term as president, and then written into law by former President Joseph Biden. She said the issue came to light as governments increasingly, during and since COVID, put public information online, where some people with visual disabilities can’t access it.

“Because of COVID, so many things went to the web, and an online platform, and I think it really made people aware about how noncompliant people were and how we needed to do better overall,” Gauvin told city councilors when they discussed the problem April 10.

Councilors didn’t vote on the issue but did, by consensus, indicate the city should take action, with most favoring a “middle ground” proposal from Gauvin to spend between $5,000 and $10,000 to hire a vendor to redesign the city’s logo, and update city fonts and other online materials to ensure compliance with accessibility rules.

City Manager Jared Mills said, while there is nothing currently in the proposed budget to pay for the proposal, he’d look into funding sources and report back to councilors. Some councilors suggested using economic development funds generated in one of the city’s tax increment financing districts.

Gauvin advocated for an ad hoc committee to be formed, to help select the new, high resolution logo and city font styles and colors. Some councilors suggested a survey of residents, instead.

Gauvin said an example of the problem could be found when the city first posted the proposed budget for next year online. Officials did so by scanning the entire document in. But the document had pages going in different directions, which made it so digital screen readers, used to assist people who are visually impaired, couldn’t read them. She said it took her two days to fix the problem by recreating the pages all in the same direction, with the correct font size and type to ensure it was accessible.

The proposal would replace outdated letterhead, business cards and marketing material in a phased-approach over two to four years, with departments ordering updated materials as existing supplies are depleted.