The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will extend the deadline for colleges and other public entities to comply with new requirements for web and mobile content accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The new interim final rule will be published in the Federal Register April 20. The disability guidance was adopted on April 24, 2024, but provided institutions with between two and three years to come into compliance, depending on their size. The interim rule will extend the compliance deadline for public entities with a total population of 50,000 or more from April 24, 2026, to April 24, 2027. It will extend the deadline for public entities with a total population of less than 50,000 from April 24, 2027, to April 24, 2028. Public entity population refers to the total population of the states or localities of which the college is an instrumentality.
Related article: Digital accessibility: More than a regulatory obligation
Title II of the ADA requires that all services, programs and activities of state and local governments and their affiliated entities are accessible to people with disabilities. Although DOJ had previously considered Title II to be inclusive of web content and mobile apps, it had not set a specific technical standard for web- and mobile app-based ADA compliance until the 2024 guidance.
Under the regulations, community colleges will need to ensure that websites, web content — including text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations and conventional electronic documents — and mobile apps used at or by the institution meet Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, published in 2018.
The American Association of Community Colleges endorsed comments submitted by the American Council of Education in 2023 that expressed support for more accessible online platforms but urged DOJ to provide a five-year compliance time frame for institutions of all sizes.
