The ADA Title II Deadline
Digital accessibility is a basic right. The US Department of Justice passed a rule that sets WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical standard for all state and local government-owned digital assets. In 2025, ADA digital accessibility lawsuits surged, targeting sectors like health care and professional services, with cases projected to grow by nearly 20 percent by year-end. According to the American Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II, the deadline for compliance is April 24, 2026 (April 2027 if the population is less than 50,000). If you are yet to start working on accessibility compliance, you have no time to waste.
Road Map to Compliance
Here is a road map to serve as a guide, give direction, and provide a sense of available time to make digital assets compliant.
- Start with understanding the rule and its requirements, and figure out the deadlines. This will give you a clear-cut idea of what you have ahead of you. Procrastination puts your organization at legal risk.
- Identify individuals who will be a part of the process. This may require more effort, as it can be anyone who buys or uses a software or an app. Assigning an executive to facilitate relevant tasks, monitor projects, and make timely decisions goes a long way.
- Procure resources, and draft a plan to assign timelines, budget, and roles. Get expert help to interpret the implications of ADA and WCAG 2.1 conformance, audits, and testing.
- Create awareness among staff members about accessibility and why it is important. Training will help people who directly make changes for conformance and also identify areas that you may have overlooked.
- Conducting an accessibility audit of digital properties provides you with a reliable inventory: websites, apps, documents, software, and social media pages are just a few assets to concentrate on. The rule allows a few exceptions, like archived web content and preexisting electronic documents, so check before beginning your work. Work on content that is important, frequently used, or requires more attention and time as soon as possible.
- Discuss accessibility with vendors who provide products or content. Make necessary changes in contracts, as third-party digital content is also part of your compliance.
- Proactive measurements definitely help, but at this moment, it is better to start with remediation. Research the accessibility of new products, as these can create problems later. Inputs from different departments will help address issues in implementation.
- Build accessible content processes to strengthen your efforts. Test the products with a combination of automated tools and manually to achieve proper compliance. Accessibility testing, if not done properly, may overlook errors and result in noncompliance.
- Create accessibility policies that define your goals, standards, and responsibilities. Review job descriptions to include skills and responsibilities related to accessibility.
- Discuss the impact of the regulations, timelines, and project updates regularly. Create channels for internal communication on progress, process, and updates. Setting up a page to address accessibility issues faced by public users is a quick way to get direct feedback and improve.
With the right guidance, you can ensure ADA II compliance within the deadline.
Amnet’s accessibility services can help you achieve full compliance through audits, remediation, born-accessible solutions, and accessibility testing. Drop us a message to get in touch with our experts.
Sources
- https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-rule-first-steps/.
- https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/.
- https://webaim.org/articles/adaroadmap/.
- https://www.ada.gov/title-ii-web-rule.
- https://accessibility.osu.edu/title-ii/how-to-prepare.
- https://www.deque.com/blog/you-need-to-get-started-on-ada-title-ii-compliance-now-how-to-strategize-funding-slash-risk-and-ensure-roi/.
- https://accessibility.umich.edu/compliance-roadmap.
- https://info.usablenet.com/2025-midyear-report.
