A municipal fee-payment portal or public meeting video without captions isn't just a usability gap — under a 2024 federal rule, it's a compliance failure with a real deadline. That deadline just moved, but the underlying obligation didn't disappear.
The standard is WCAG 2.1 AA, not 2.2
On April 24, 2024, the Department of Justice finalized a rule under Title II of the ADA requiring state and local governments to make their web content and mobile apps accessible according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. This covers virtually all public entities — city and county governments, public schools and universities, courts, and special districts like water, fire, and transit authorities — and applies not just to content they create themselves but to anything "provided or made available" through third-party vendors.
The deadlines just moved — but the rule didn't go away
The original compliance dates were April 24, 2026 for larger public entities (population 50,000 or more) and April 26, 2027 for smaller entities and special districts. On April 20, 2026 — just four days before the first deadline — the DOJ published an interim final rule pushing both dates back by one year: April 26, 2027 for larger entities, and April 26, 2028 for smaller ones. Critically, this only delays the specific WCAG 2.1 AA technical deadline. It does not suspend Title II's underlying nondiscrimination and effective-communication requirements, which have supported accessibility lawsuits for years even without a specific technical standard attached.
A separate deadline that didn't move
If your local agency receives funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, a separate HHS Section 504 rule from May 2024 imposes parallel web and mobile accessibility requirements with its own compliance date of May 11, 2026 — and HHS has not matched the DOJ's one-year extension. Healthcare-adjacent public agencies and HHS grant recipients should not assume the DOJ extension automatically applies to them.
What WCAG 2.1 AA actually requires in practice
- Full keyboard navigation — every function must work without a mouse
- Content that reflows and resizes without breaking the layout or losing information
- Form inputs with clear, programmatically associated labels
- Captions for video content, including recordings of public meetings
- Accessible PDF documents — a scanned image of a form is not accessible, regardless of how official it looks
Why private plaintiffs aren't waiting for the new deadline
The extension doesn't pause lawsuits. Because Title II's general nondiscrimination obligations remain fully in effect throughout the extension period, advocacy organizations and private plaintiffs can and likely will continue filing accessibility complaints and litigation now, well before the new 2027/2028 technical deadlines arrive. Treating the extra year as a free pass rather than a compliance runway is a real legal risk, not just a missed opportunity to get ahead.
What this means practically
- The technical standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA — not 2.2, and not a vaguer "reasonable accessibility" standard.
- Compliance deadlines are now April 2027 (large entities) and April 2028 (smaller entities/special districts) — a full year later than originally set, following the DOJ's April 2026 interim final rule.
- HHS-funded agencies face a separate, non-extended deadline of May 11, 2026 under a different rule — don't assume the DOJ extension covers you if you receive HHS funding.
- Title II's general nondiscrimination duty remains enforceable right now — the extension only delays the specific technical benchmark, not all legal exposure.
Sources
- Duane Morris LLP — DOJ Extends ADA Title II Digital Accessibility Deadlines by One Year: duanemorris.com
- Jackson Lewis — DOJ Extends Public Entities' Compliance Deadline, HHS's May 2026 Deadline Still Looms: jacksonlewis.com
Related Kibbo Tools
- Government Website Accessibility Checklist — review a public portal's basic accessibility before filing a complaint.
- Government Accessibility Complaint Authorities Directory — find where to file a formal accessibility complaint.