Resource Page: ADA Requirements for Website Accessibility

Updated April 2026

Understanding the 2024 DOJ Final Rule

In April 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a final rule implementing Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for web-based government services provided by state and local governments. The rule establishes standards for web content accessibility based on the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard, issued in June 2018. The WCAG is a set of guidelines that outlines the parameters around web accessibility and is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium.

The goal of the DOJ final rule is to ensure that online government services and resources including text, video, audio, website layout and design, future social media posts and documents hosted on a public entity’s website comply with the ADA.

The rule applies to a wide range of online government services, including public notices, forms, digital applications, and video content. 

There are a few exceptions to the new standards for the following categories of web content:

• Archived web content
• Preexisting conventional electronic documents
• Web content posted by third parties on a county’s website
• Third-party web content linked from a county’s website
• Course content for specific students in public postsecondary institutions
• Class or course content for specific students in public elementary or secondary
• schools
• Conventional electronic documents related to specific individuals, their property, or their accounts, and are password-protected or secured

Implementation costs are estimated to be in the tens of billions nationwide, creating significant challenges for small or resource-constrained public entities as compliance deadlines approach. However, DOJ has stated that compliance with the rule is only required to the extent that it does not result in provable “undue financial and administrative burdens.”

September 2025 – DOJ Announced Plans to Issue NPRM

On September 22 2025, DOJ announced plans in the federal register to issue a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to explore ways to lower the cost of compliance with its 2024 Final Rule on web-based accessibility requirements for state and local governments (public entities).

While DOJ has not yet released a formal timeline for the new NPRM, the announcement comes as key compliance deadlines near: public entities, other than special district governments, serving populations of 50,000 or more must meet the new accessibility standards by April 24, 2026, while smaller entities and special district governments have until April 24, 2027.  

Update as of April 2026

With the first compliance deadline now less than a month away, the DOJ has not yet published a NPRM. NADO has compiled resources below to support operational and technical compliance with the rule.