Compliance · United States
The ADA and website accessibility
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not mention websites, but the U.S. Department of Justice has long taken the position that it covers them. What applies depends on who runs the site: state and local governments now have a technical rule with fixed dates; businesses do not. This page summarises the federal position. It is not legal advice.
Title III: businesses and nonprofits
Title III covers businesses and nonprofits that serve the public, such as shops, restaurants, hotels, theatres and doctors' offices, as well as privately operated transit and commercial facilities.
Title II: state and local government
Title II covers every service, program and activity of state and local governments, including their websites and mobile apps.
Businesses: guidance, but no technical rule
In its Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA of 18 March 2022, the Department of Justice says businesses can currently choose how they ensure their online content is accessible, and points to WCAG and the Section 508 standards as helpful references rather than required ones.
There is no Title III regulation that sets a web standard. The rulemaking the Department started in 2010 on the accessibility of public accommodations' websites is listed as withdrawn for further review since 31 October 2017, and the April 2026 Title II rule states that it does not address Title III.
Public bodies: WCAG 2.1 AA, with new dates
The Title II rule published on 24 April 2024 requires web content and mobile apps of state and local governments to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. An interim final rule effective 20 April 2026 moved both compliance dates back by a year. The technical standard did not change.
| Public entity | Original date | Date since April 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Population of 50,000 or more | 24 April 2026 | 26 April 2027 |
| Population under 50,000, and special district governments | 26 April 2027 | 26 April 2028 |
The Department says it will consider proposing changes to the rule's substance during the extension. Check ada.gov before relying on these dates.
Where automated scanning fits
Neither the guidance nor the rule accepts a tool's verdict as proof of accessibility, and no scanner can give one. A scan is useful for finding the WCAG failures that can be measured, on every page and every release, before a user or a lawyer finds them.
Accessibility Pro tags each finding with a litigation-risk tier, its own grouping of the WCAG criteria that public trackers of ADA web lawsuits cite most often, so the report opens with the problems to fix first, and it runs in CI through the accessibility GitHub Action. It never issues a compliance certificate; see how compliance reporting works and the WCAG 2.2 checklist.
Sources
Checked on 2026-09-24. The Title II dates are set by an interim final rule and may change again. This page is a summary, not legal advice.
- U.S. Department of Justice: Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (18 March 2022)
- ADA.gov: Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act
- ADA.gov: Title II web and mobile app accessibility rule, fact sheet
- DOJ interim final rule extending the Title II compliance dates (effective 20 April 2026)
- reginfo.gov: RIN 1190-AA61, web accessibility of public accommodations (withdrawn 2017)