Accessibility compliance guides · United States

ADA Title II & III website compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act is the law most often used to challenge an inaccessible website in the United States. Title II now names a technical standard and dates for state and local government. Title III is how businesses get sued.

Technical standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA for Title II web content and mobile apps
Title II dates: April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028
Title III: No single federal deadline; lawsuits use WCAG AA in practice

What it is

The ADA became law in 1990, before the web people use today. Two titles matter for websites. Title II covers state and local government. Title III covers businesses that serve the public.

In April 2024 the U.S. Department of Justice published a final rule for Title II web content and mobile apps. For the first time, the ADA names an explicit technical standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The rule covers websites, web content, and mobile apps that a public entity provides or makes available, including services delivered through a contractor or vendor.

On April 20, 2026 the Department published an interim final rule (91 Fed. Reg. 20902) that moved the compliance dates out by one year. The standard did not change. Title II duties that already existed — nondiscrimination and effective communication — were not paused by the extension.

Title III still has no codified web standard. Courts and settlements treat WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark, and the Title II rule makes WCAG 2.1 AA the reference point for the rest of the ADA. Overlay widgets do not deliver that conformance, and sites that rely on them have been sued.

Who needs to comply

Coverage is broad, and it reaches organizations outside the United States when they serve people in the U.S.

State and local government (Title II). States, counties, cities, towns, public school districts, public colleges, courts, and special purpose districts such as water, fire, library, hospital, and transit districts. A school district is not a special district: its date follows the population it serves.
Vendors to those governments. If a public entity provides or makes your website, app, portal, or document available, the entity’s obligation reaches that content. Procurement teams ask for WCAG 2.1 AA evidence, usually an Accessibility Conformance Report.
Businesses open to the public (Title III). Retail, hospitality, healthcare, banking, education, and almost any service the public can use. E-commerce is the most common lawsuit target. Demand letters often arrive before anyone files.
Companies outside the U.S.. Suits regularly name non-U.S. companies whose sites sell to customers in the United States. A Canadian store that ships to U.S. addresses can receive a Title III demand.

Timeline

Title II has dated technical deadlines. Title III does not — the exposure is current.

April 24, 2024. DOJ final rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level AA for Title II web content and mobile apps.
April 20, 2026. Interim final rule extends the compliance dates by one year. The WCAG 2.1 AA standard stays in place.
April 26, 2027. Public entities with a total population of 50,000 or more.
April 26, 2028. Public entities under 50,000 people, and all special district governments.
Title III, ongoing. Private lawsuits and demand letters continue on their own clock. There is no date to wait for.

What the rule requires

The Title II rule is specific. Title III practice follows the same technical bar.

WCAG 2.1 AA for web and apps. Public entities must make web content and mobile apps conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. We also test WCAG 2.2 AA where you want room above the legal floor.
Content you provide through others. Contractor, licensed, and vendor content that the entity makes available is in scope. A third-party payment page or permit portal is not “someone else’s website” if residents must use it.
Limited exceptions, read narrowly. The rule exempts some archived content, preexisting conventional documents that are not used to apply for or participate in a service, certain third-party content, individualized password-protected documents, and preexisting social media posts. New agendas, forms, and service documents are not in that bucket.
A working way to get help. Public entities need a way for people to report barriers and request an alternative. An accessibility statement with a monitored contact path is part of how we leave a site.

How we help

We help governments meet the Title II rule and help businesses reduce Title III risk by fixing the site, not by adding an overlay.

An audit mapped to WCAG 2.1 AA, with notes on Title II deadlines or Title III lawsuit patterns depending on who you are.
Remediation of the issues plaintiffs actually cite: missing names, unlabeled forms, keyboard traps, inaccessible menus, and checkout.
Manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, plus keyboard-only use and browser zoom. The failures these rules care about are often invisible to an automated scan.
Remediation in your production code by our developers, so the fix lives in the product and not only in a report.
An accessibility statement and, where a buyer or regulator expects one, a VPAT-based Accessibility Conformance Report grounded in the audit.
Training for the people who publish pages, documents, and campaigns after the audit.
A retest after major releases, so a later deploy does not quietly undo the work.

Web accessibility audit and remediation

Our process

Confirm what applies to you. We sort Title II public-entity duties from Title III business risk, including whether a vendor product is in a government contract.
Audit the live experience. We review the pages, flows, documents, and apps people actually use, with assistive technologies as well as automated checks, and map each finding to the standard this rule points to.
Fix the barriers that block access. Our developers remediate structure, keyboard access, forms, contrast, names, and media in your codebase, starting with the journeys that gate a service.
Document what was tested. You receive the findings, what we fixed, and the statement or conformance report your team, counsel, or procurement office needs on file.
Keep it from slipping. We train publishers and retest after significant releases so new content does not reopen the same gaps.

Longer background: ADA website compliance requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Our town is small. Does Title II still apply?

Yes. State and local governments and special districts are covered regardless of budget. Smaller entities and special districts have until April 26, 2028. Larger entities have until April 26, 2027. Existing nondiscrimination duties already apply.

We are a business, not a government. Which title matters?

Title III. There is no DOJ technical deadline for private websites, but federal suits and state laws such as California’s Unruh Act and New York human rights claims use WCAG AA as the measure. Waiting for a Title III regulation is not a strategy.

Will an overlay widget satisfy the ADA?

No. Overlays do not conform a site to WCAG, and they have been named in lawsuits. We fix the underlying code and content.

Can you guarantee we will not be sued?

No one honestly can. We audit and remediate to WCAG 2.1 AA, document what we tested, and leave the legal position with you and your counsel.

Related guides

This page is general information from Peradeo Technologies Inc., not legal advice.

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