The legislature recognizes that people in Washington rely on the legislature's website, leg.wa.gov, to read and understand the Revised Code of Washington and the Washington Administrative Code. The legislature further recognizes that leg.wa.gov is among the most user-friendly legislative websites in the United States. However, the sections in the Revised Code of Washington and the Washington Administrative Code as presented on leg.wa.gov lack customary indentation to visually indicate the level of subsections and subparagraphs within code sections. This causes statutes and rules to be unnecessarily difficult to navigate for both legal practitioners and the general public, making the law harder to understand, whereas the law should be clear and easy to use. Therefore, the legislature intends that the office of the code reviser should include indentation in a logical manner on the leg.wa.gov website.
This section modifies existing section 44.68.100. Here is the modified chapter for context.
The legislature and legislative agencies through the administrative committee, shall:
Continue to plan for and implement processes for making legislative information available electronically;
Promote and facilitate electronic access to the public of legislative information and services;
Establish technical standards for such services**. These standards must include a requirement that each section of the electronic versions of the Revised Code of Washington and the Washington Administrative Code be indented in accordance with their subsection or subparagraph level in order for a reader to easily distinguish the subsection and subparagraphs within a section**;
Consider electronic public access needs when planning new information systems or major upgrades of information systems;
Develop processes to determine which legislative information the public most wants and needs;
Increase capabilities to receive information electronically from the public and transmit forms, applications and other communications and transactions electronically;
Use technologies that allow continuous access twenty-four hours a day, seven days per week, involve little or no cost to access, and are capable of being used by persons without extensive technology ability; and
Consider and incorporate wherever possible ease of access to electronic technologies by persons with disabilities.