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On April 24, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a final rule to adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1 Level AA (WCAG 2.1) as the compliance standard for web and mobile app accessibility for Title II entities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In response to the Office of Management and Budget’s solicitation of ideas and feedback for deregulation across industries, the American Council on Education submitted a letter requesting the DOJ delay the 2024 final rule’s compliance dates past the two-year allowance to account for the resources and time needed to meet such compliance. In conjunction with this and other public comments, the DOJ’s plan to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reconsider whether some of the rule provisions could be “made less costly” led to the extension of the compliance deadlines for the formerly final, currently interim final rule.

Interim Rule

Scope. Title II of the ADA applies to the public services, programs, and activities of covered entities. In this portion of the law, a covered entity is a “public entity,” which is defined as:

  • any state or local government;
  • any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a state or states or local government; and
  • the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and any commuter authority.

Some examples of public entities include public schools, community colleges, public universities, public transit agencies, public libraries, and state-operated hospitals and healthcare clinics.

Requirements. The ADA Title II interim rule requires all services, programs, and activities of covered entities to be accessible to people with disabilities, and changes prior suggested guidance for web- and mobile app-based ADA compliance into mandatory technical requirements. Covered entities now must ensure apps, websites, and web content (including text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations, and electronic documents) meet WCAG 2.1, which was originally published in 2018. The rule goes into effect on different dates based on the “total population” of a covered entity, which is defined around the most recent Census calculations for the total individuals making up the entity.

Exceptions. The rule has limited exceptions for archived web content, preexisting conventional electronic documents, content posted by a third party where the third party is not posting due to contractual, licensing, or other arrangements with a public entity as well as individualized documents that are password protected and preexisting social media posts. The DOJ Civil Rights Division outlines these exceptions in a recently updated fact sheet.

Enforcement. If covered entities are able to show that their noncompliance with WCAG 2.1 is minor enough that “it would not affect the ability of individuals with disabilities to use the . . . web content or mobile app,” they are deemed to not be violating the rule. Otherwise, the ADA is generally enforced through federal agency investigations, private suits in federal court, and individually filed formal complaints with the DOJ or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against organizations violating the law.

Relevant dates

  • June 22, 2026- public comment period ends, DOJ begins review of feedback to interim rule.
  • April 26, 2027- covered entities with a total population of 50,000 or more must comply.
  • April 26, 2028- covered entities with a total population of less than 50,000, and special district governments must comply.

Best practices for compliance

To comply with this rule, covered entities must bring their technological processes up to date with WCAG 2.1, Level AA standards. This includes examining practices around:

  • Content orientation: content should be able to be displayed in landscape and portrait orientation.
  • Input: input elements should indicate the purpose of the input, like a “Name” field in a form, so browsers and assistive technology can help facilitate inputting information.
  • Content size/reflow: users should be able to increase the size of the content up to 400% without needing to scroll horizontally across the page.
  • Text spacing: users should be able to adjust the text kerning, word spacing, and line height without causing a loss of functionality or content.
  • Non-text contrast: non-text content like icons should have a minimum of 3:1 color contrast ratio against adjacent and background colors.
  • Content on hover or focus: additional content like pop-ups or submenus should be able to be dismissed or remain visible depending on user preference.
  • Keyboard shortcuts: users should be able to turn off keyboard shortcuts, use another key to access the shortcut, and/or have the shortcut active only while focusing on that specific component.
  • Pointer gestures: website owners should provide a way to cancel the trigger action when a function is activated with a “down event” (e.g., a mouse click, a finger press or touch).
  • Labels: website owners should ensure programmatic labels are aligned with the corresponding visual text.
  • Motion actuation: website owners should provide a simpler, alternative method to functions that are activated by a motion and an option to turn off motion activation.
  • Status messages: status messages on a webpage or app should be “programmatically determinable” (i.e., coded with a role or properties) so assistive technology users are properly alerted.

Looking ahead

The years-long process of approving and mandating the 2018-published WCAG 2.1 as the ADA web compliance standard in 2024 has put organizations that have prioritized online and device accessibility ahead of the curve. WCAG version 2.2 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2023 and approved as the ISO/IEC 40500 standard in 2025. The ADA Title II interim rule fact sheet addresses this by stating that organizations are more than welcome to comply with the more recent WCAG version but must comply with WCAG 2.1 as a baseline. Updates to a new WCAG version are currently underway, with W3C publishing an explainer for and working draft of WCAG 3 in March 2026.

The extension of the compliance deadlines for this rule has had some ripple effects on other industries with related rules. The Department of Health and Human Services’ final rule updating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regulations to mandate WCAG 2.1 compliance has similarly been extended by a year; this final rule will now go into effect on May 11, 2027 for covered entities with 15 or more employees and May 10, 2028 for those with fewer than 15 employees. At the state level, the Texas Department of Information Resources Governing Board proposed amendments to Texas Administrative Code Chapter 213 to align the state’s rules with the DOJ’s WCAG 2.1 update and has not indicated yet whether their vote to adopt the amendments will also be delayed by the DOJ’s extension. Organizations across industries that are affected by web and mobile app accessibility rules should look to WCAG 2.1 as a compliance floor and continue to keep an eye out for further developments into WCAG 3.