Effective April 2024, the Department of Justice issued changes to digital accessibility requirements under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. All Title II entities, including public universities and state and local governments, must comply with these new requirements by April 2026.
What’s required?
Institutions must offer all people, including people with disabilities, effective communications, reasonable modifications, and equal opportunities to participate in all services, programs, and activities provided by the institution and any third-party or contractor. These requirements include information and experiences available on the web and via mobile apps.
Institutions are always responsible for providing an accessible version as an accommodation, unless it would fundamentally alter services, programs, or activities or present an undue burden, as defined in the ADA.
What’s the new standard?
Title II requires WCAG 2.1 A/AA or better.
How should we prioritize?
Prioritize information and experiences that are currently needed and most frequently used, as well as anything crucial to participate in any services, programs, and activities.
Are there any exceptions?
Digital resources that were previously exempted or deemed lower priority should be reexamined and brought into compliance with the new standard. This includes authentication or password-protected applications and content, as well as those resources used by a small number of known users. No exceptions are allowed for content or services still in use to apply for, access, or participate in services, programs, or activities.
Potential exceptions include:
- Archived web content, defined as
- Created before or reproduces documents and media created before April 24, 2024
- Only for reference, research, or record-keeping
- Located in a special area for archives
- Unchanged since being archived
- Documents, defined as
- Word-processing document, presentation slides, PDF, or spreadsheet
- Available online prior to April 24, 2024
- Not updated since April 24, 2024
- Third Party content posted by the third party and NOT on our behalf
- Individualized documents with password or other protection/security
- Word-processing document, presentation slides, PDF, or spreadsheet specific to an individual person or account
- Pre-existing social media posts
Are conforming alternate formats an acceptable replacement for accessible content?
Only allowed to use conforming alt-format when technical or legal limitations prevent inaccessible web or mobile content from being made accessible.