Business Roundup Week Ending September 6

New HHS Rule Requires WCAG Compliance for Providers who Accept Medicaid & Medicare

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a final ruling requiring providers who accept Medicaid and Medicare to conform to WCAG 2.1.
The new rule affects websites, apps, social media, and emails for Medicare and Medicaid participants.
Providers with 15 or more employees must reach level AA by May 10, 2026, while those with less than 15 employees have until May 11, 2027.
If your agency serves providers in this category, now is the time to start educating them and put a plan together to update their sites.
Learn more in this excellent summary of the ruling from Gen Herres at Easy A11y Guide, or you can read the full law here.

WordCamp US is coming to Portland in a couple of weeks.
In the past, WordCamp US was the event that many attended exclusively for the hallway track, not the talks.
This year’s WCUS team has done an excellent job selecting practical talks that are helpful to those of us who run agencies.
Here’s a few I’m excited about:
- Deeply Integrating AI with WordPress – James LePage has done some excellent work with CodeWP and AgentWP.
- Building WordPress Websites with Privacy by Design in Mind – Donata Stroink-Skillrud is an expert when it comes to WordPress and privacy.
- Growing and Sustaining a Digital Agency in Uncertain Times – Jessi Gurr knows what she’s doing when it comes to agency work and will have loads of practical experience to offer.
- Scaling Your Agency: Lessons Learned the Hard Way – Karena Kreger is another savvy agency owner who has a lot to share about scaling from solopreneur to agency.
Check out the full WordCamp US Schedule.

Google is reintroducing image generation of people in its AI tools after a previous controversy.
The company had suspended this feature due to historically inaccurate and racially incorrect depictions.
While Google has made significant improvements to its Imagen 3 AI model, users will not be allowed to create photorealistic images, identifiable individuals, or inappropriate content.
Bloomberg’s article outlines the details.
Are you using generative AI for images in your agency? We have found some limited use cases that are pretty interesting.

The WordPress Training Team really wants learn.wordpress.org to be successful. They are looking for your feedback and ideas to get more first time and consistent, returning users.
Google’s John Mueller recommends prioritizing impactful content over worrying about spam scores, which he views as insignificant in the bigger picture.
WPLift has been acquired by E2M Solutions. The white-label partner that helps digital agencies grow their business and take on more projects without the added costs of hiring in-house staff plans to leverage the power of community that WPLift has built.
On a recent episode of WP Tavern Jukebox, Nathan Wrigley has a conversation with Chris Ferdinandi about working in tech with an ADHD diagnosis.