ADA

Title II covers state and local governments: agencies and departments, public schools and universities, courts, libraries, transit authorities and special district governments. Under 28 CFR § 35.200(a), it covers web content and mobile apps that a public entity provides or makes available, directly or through contractual, licensing or other arrangements. The Department of Justice (DOJ) fact sheet on the rule gives the example of a city that lets people pay for parking through an app run by a private company. That app must also meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Title III covers businesses open to the public. The DOJ guidance on web accessibility of March 18, 2022 names retail stores, banks, hotels, hospitals and medical offices, restaurants, theaters and sports arenas as examples, and states that the DOJ has consistently held that the ADA applies to goods and services offered on the web.

Whether Title III covers businesses that exist only online is not settled. The law firm Seyfarth Shaw reports that federal and state appeals courts in California have found that online-only businesses are not covered. The Second Circuit, which covers New York, has not decided the question, although most New York district judges who have ruled on it have found that online-only businesses are covered.

Under 28 CFR § 35.200(b), web content and mobile apps of public entities must meet the Level A and Level AA success criteria and conformance requirements of WCAG 2.1. Public entities with a total population of 50,000 or more must comply from April 26, 2027. Public entities with a population under 50,000 and all special district governments must comply from April 26, 2028.

These dates come from an interim final rule of April 20, 2026. The original dates were April 24, 2026 and April 26, 2027. The rule took effect on April 20, 2026; comments could be submitted until June 22, 2026. The technical standard did not change.

§ 35.201 lists five exceptions: archived web content, preexisting conventional electronic documents such as PDF files, content posted by third parties unless the posting is due to contractual, licensing or other arrangements with the public entity, individualized password-protected documents, and preexisting social media posts. Each exception has conditions in the text of the rule.

Under § 35.202, a conforming alternate version is only allowed where web content cannot be made directly accessible due to technical or legal limitations. Under § 35.204, a public entity does not have to comply where it can prove that compliance would fundamentally alter a service, program or activity or would cause undue financial and administrative burdens; this decision must be made by the head of the entity or a designee and put in writing. Under § 35.205, noncompliance counts as compliance only in the limited case where its impact on access is so minimal that people with disabilities can still use the content with substantially equivalent timeliness, privacy, independence and ease of use.

No regulation sets a technical standard for the websites of businesses. The DOJ guidance says the Department "does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards". Businesses can choose how they make their websites accessible. The guidance names WCAG and the Section 508 Standards as helpful guidance. The guidance itself is not legally binding.

WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the only web standard that the DOJ has written into an ADA regulation, in the Title II rule. The W3C states that content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1.

The DOJ enforces the ADA. People with disabilities can also sue businesses under Title III. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2025, up 27% from 2,452 in 2024. They made up 36% of all 8,667 federal ADA Title III lawsuits. Most were filed in New York (1,021), Florida (961) and Illinois (585). Demand letters and lawsuits in state courts are not included in these numbers.

In 2026, a federal court in New York dismissed a website lawsuit as moot. The defendant showed that it had worked with an accessibility consultant since 2023, attached the audit report, explained how it fixed the issue that was found and set out a plan for ongoing compliance. The plaintiff offered no evidence in response. The dismissal was without prejudice.

In May 2026, the National Federation of the Blind sued to overturn the extension of the Title II compliance dates.

The DOJ guidance says automated accessibility checkers "need to be used carefully" and that a clean report does not necessarily mean everything is accessible. It recommends manual checks in addition.

In April 2025, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a final order requiring the overlay vendor accessiBe to pay 1 million dollars. The order bars the company from claiming that its automated products can make any website WCAG-compliant unless it has evidence for the claim. The FTC acted against deceptive advertising. It did not rule on the ADA.

The Overlay Fact Sheet, signed by accessibility professionals, concludes that no overlay can make a website fully compliant with any existing accessibility standard.

For testing a website: the free accessibility check for a first automated result and the manual audit against WCAG 2.2. Related fact pages: the fact page about the WCAG and the fact page on WCAG 2.2. On overlays: our comparison of overlays, scanners and analytics tools. All fact pages are listed on the facts overview.

The ADA is not Section 508. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act applies to federal agencies and the technology they develop, buy and use, not to state and local governments or private businesses.

The ADA has no certification for websites. The certification process in the ADA concerns state and local building codes, not websites, so a website badge has no official standing.

The Title II web rule does not apply to businesses directly. It reaches private companies only where they provide web content or mobile apps for a public entity through contractual, licensing or other arrangements.