ADA and web accessibility, with Title II and Title III kept apart
The DOJ's Title II rule names WCAG 2.1 Level AA with dated deadlines for state and local government. Title III, for businesses open to the public, has no technical standard at all — and confusing the two is where most planning goes wrong.
Not legal advice · scan a public URL free
- The technical standard the Title II rule adopts
- WCAG 2.1 AA
- Effective date of the DOJ Interim Final Rule
- 20 April 2026
- Compliance date for entities with a total population of 50,000 or more, extended from 24 April 2026
- 26 April 2027
- Compliance date for entities under 50,000 and any special district government, extended from 26 April 2027
- 26 April 2028
Taken from the Department of Justice Interim Final Rule itself, read on ada.gov on 11 September 2026. These dates have already been extended once; check ada.gov rather than this page before planning around them.
Title II and Title III, side by side
Two titles of the same statute, with entirely different amounts of technical detail behind them.
| Item | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Title II — state and local government | Since the DOJ's 2024 rule, a named standard (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) with dated deadlines staged by entity size. It also reaches special purpose districts, Amtrak and other commuter authorities. |
| Title III — businesses open to the public | The DOJ's position is that the ADA applies, but no regulation names a technical standard, and the 2026 Interim Final Rule says Title III was not addressed in it. |
| What reaches private vendors | Sell software to a covered public entity and their Title II obligation becomes your procurement question — usually how a private company first meets the rule. |
What a scan honestly contributes
Three things a scan gives you, and one it never will.
| Item | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A dated record of runs | Scan history for 90 days; scheduled runs make a continuous series, not a single snapshot. | Provided |
| The machine-checkable subset, cleared | 23 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 AA criteria on the engine we run, ranked by which fix clears the most. | Provided |
| An explicit not-checked list | Criteria no rule can evaluate are reported as not checked, never as passed. | Named, never claimed |
| Not a certification | No conformance report, no certificate, no overlay. A scan is an input, not a verdict. | Not offered |
What this does not do
- It is not legal advice.
- We build testing tools. Whether the ADA reaches your organisation, and what that requires, is a question for a qualified lawyer.
- It does not tell you an obligation applies to you.
- The page describes who each rule generally covers. Your own position depends on facts we do not have.
- Dates move.
- The Title II compliance dates have already been extended once. Check ada.gov rather than this page before planning around them.
- A clean scan is not compliance.
- Automated rules reach 23 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 AA criteria on our engine. The other 32 are reported as not checked and stay unknown until a person checks them.
Frequently asked questions
The Department of Justice says yes, and has taken that position since 1996. What it does not do for private businesses is name a technical standard — the DOJ's guidance says organisations have flexibility in how they comply.
Title II covers state and local government and now has a named standard, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with dated deadlines. Title III covers businesses open to the public and has no technical standard at all.
The Title II web deadlines were extended in 2026. A DOJ Interim Final Rule effective 20 April 2026 moved entities with a total population of 50,000 or more from 24 April 2026 to 26 April 2027, and entities under 50,000 or any special district government from 26 April 2027 to 26 April 2028. Check ada.gov before planning — this has already moved once.
That depends on your organisation, and it is a question for a qualified lawyer rather than a testing vendor — this page describes who each rule generally covers, not your specific position. In broad terms, Title II covers state and local government with a named standard and dated deadlines, while Title III covers businesses open to the public and names no technical standard at all.
No. The claim is contested by disability organisations and has itself been litigated. Accessibility is a property of the product, not of a script added to it, and we do not sell an overlay.
Related
- Section 508The US federal procurement standard
- EN 301 549The European standard behind public-sector procurement
- VPAT and ACRWhat the template is, and what we can and cannot supply
- All of AccessibilityAutomated WCAG scanning, workflow audits, and reports
- PricingPer-seat test management and per-thread device testing, priced on the page
Start with a baseline you can date
Run a scan against the journeys that matter, clear the machine-checkable findings, and keep a record that shows the work rather than claiming a verdict.