Department of Justice (DOJ) Web Accessibility Mandates
The Department of Justice (DOJ) mandates that state and local government (Title II) websites and mobile apps comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards, with deadlines of April 24, 2026, for populations of 50,000+ and April 26, 2027, for smaller entities. This covers all digital services, including forms, portals, and third-party tools.
The rule covers digital content, such as web pages, PDF documents, mobile apps, and third-party content (e.g., parking apps, voting portals). With the following exceptions archived, pre-existing social media posts, and third-party content on a website that is not controlled by the public entity may have exceptions.
The DOJ enforces these regulations, and failure to comply can result in lawsuits, legal action, and potential fines.
In order to comply with these mandates we suggest the following:
The Web Accessibility requirements continue to evolve and to date not all issues can be identified without manual intervention. For this reason, being 100% accessible is difficult. Focus on continuous improvement. Make a plan, take steps to comply and offer an option for users to request assistance if needed.
We suggest the following:
- inventory all affected websites, mobile apps and vendor provided web based services.
- identify PDF documents found on each affected website. These documents provide a unique barrior to compliance and should be scanned using Adobe Acrobat PRO and issues resolved or the content converted to HTML. If PDF documents will remain on the website, you are highly encouraged to move them to a seperate archive and no new PDF documents be added.
- contact vendors to request a VPAT showing the accessibility status of the website content and work with them to ensure compliance.
- conduct a full scan of each website using WP ADA Compliance and correct current issues that are found.
- if using the WP ADA Compliance Check Plugin, enable automatic scans and notifications under plugin settings and correct new issues as they occur. The plugin will also scan posts as they are saved, prompting your users to correct issues as they occur.
- use the WP ADA Compliance Check browser extension and/or the WAVE tool by WebAim to further evaluate your website content, especially the color contrast issues.
- validate the HTML of your web pages using the FREE HTML Validation plugin or the WC3 HTML validation service.
- install a link checking plugin and correct any broken links.
- automated tools can not identify everything, at this point you may find it necessary to identify a Web Developer who is experienced in Web Accessibility.
- review the WCAG standards so you are aware of the issues.
- complete the manual checks identified under Web Accessibility dashboard menu on your website.
- evaluate your website against the WCAG standards and correct any issues.
- install the free NVDA screen reader and browse your website.
- if using the WP ADA Compliance Check Plugin, enable the web accessibility widget. The widget provides tools, such as font size increase, which your website users may use to increase the accessibility of your website. It also provides a means to implement the next two steps. Do not rely soley on any web accessibility widget to meet web accessibility requirements!
- draft an ada compliance policy and publish it on your website. This will make it clear to your users that you care about Web Accessibility and that you are working to comply with the requirements.
- provide an ada compliant online form, email address or phone number for users to report issues that they may encounter.
