The DOJ's Position on Website Accessibility Under the ADA

If your legal or compliance team is asking whether the Americans with Disabilities Act(opens in a new tab) (ADA) applies to your website, the short answer is yes. And the federal government has said so in increasingly clear terms. 

The U.S. Department of Justice’s position on website accessibility under the ADA is that public-facing websites must be accessible to people with disabilities under both Title II (public entities) and Title III (private businesses serving the public). The position has been formal since March 2022 and was codified for state and local governments in April 2024. The position has not relaxed, but tightened, the need for covered entities to ensure equal access to online spaces, most recently with a 2026 compliance deadline extension.

Below, we’ll review four crucial points on the DOJ’s stance on web accessibility: what the DOJ has officially said and when, how that guidance has been enforced, and what the current regulatory posture means for organizations assessing legal exposure.

The DOJ’s 2022 Web Accessibility Guidance: What It Said and What It Started

On March 18, 2022, the Department of Justice formally affirmed that the ADA applies to websites(opens in a new tab) under both Title II and Title III, ending a period of federal silence on the subject that had stretched back nearly two decades.

The document, titled Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA, was published by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and addressed state and local governments, as well as businesses open to the public. Its core statement has since become a reference point in accessibility law: the Department has “consistently taken the position that the ADA’s requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges, or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web.” The guidance also declared web accessibility “a priority for the Department of Justice” and stated that the Department “is committed to using its enforcement authority to ensure website accessibility.” 

An important note: The 2022 guidance did not create new law. What it did was consolidate the DOJ’s longstanding interpretation in a single, publicly accessible document — and that enforcement signal would follow. The DOJ had not issued guidance covering both Title II and Title III in this way since 2003, when it addressed only state and local government websites. 

Two years later, the DOJ would move from guidance to regulation. 

The 2024 Title II Final Rule

The 2024 Title II final rule(opens in a new tab) did what the 2022 guidance could not: it set a specific, binding technical standard for digital accessibility under the ADA for the first time. Published on April 24, 2024, the new ruling required state and local governments to make their websites and mobile apps conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(opens in a new tab) (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. 

The new rule applied only to state and local governments; it did not extend to private businesses under Title III. That includes any public entity offering services online, from permit applications and tax forms to school websites and court systems. Governments that contract with outside vendors to deliver public services are also responsible for ensuring those services meet the standard. 

There are five narrow exceptions:

• Archived content

• Documents that predate the April 2024 ruling

• Third-party content not posted under a government contract

• Password-protected individual documents

• Preexisting social media posts

However, even when an exception applies, the underlying obligation to provide equal access under Title II remains.

Illustration of a courthouse with an accessibility symbol, large clock, and web pages in the background.

The 2026 Compliance Extension: What Did and Did Not Change

On April 20, 2026, the DOJ issued an Interim Final Rule(opens in a new tab) extending compliance deadlines for the Title II new web rule; however, underlying obligations to make digital content accessible to individuals with disabilities were not relaxed. 

The new deadlines to meet ADA compliance requirements are as follows:

• State and local governments with a population of 50,000 or more have until April 26, 2027 

• Entities with populations under 50,000 (along with special district governments) have until April 26, 2028

The extension came in response to concerns from public entities about the time and resources required to make their digital content fully accessible. The DOJ acknowledged these challenges and moved the deadline to give public entities more time to assess the rule’s requirements and prepare accordingly.

What did not change with the latest ruling: the standard, the scope, or the underlying legal obligation. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is still required for ADA compliance. The DOJ was also explicit that the extension does not suspend existing ADA obligations — state and local governments are still responsible for making their web content and mobile apps accessible. 

Put simply: The clock for ADA compliance moved, but the law did not.

Recent DOJ Enforcement Cases

The DOJ hasn’t waited for rulemaking to settle before taking action. Throughout the 2024 rulemaking period and into 2026, the Civil Rights Division continued pursuing Title II enforcement against public entities with inaccessible digital content. 

For example, in January 2024, the DOJ secured a settlement agreement with Service Oklahoma(opens in a new tab) after finding that the state agency’s mobile ID app was inaccessible to people with vision disabilities. Under the agreement, Service Oklahoma is required to ensure that any mobile app it creates, administers, or maintains meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines. 

That June, the DOJ issued a letter of findings in United States v. State of Alaska(opens in a new tab), concluding that Alaska violated Title II of the ADA by failing to provide an accessible ballot for in-person voting, selecting inaccessible polling places, and maintaining an inaccessible elections website. 

That same day, the DOJ announced settlements with four Texas counties (Colorado(opens in a new tab), Runnels(opens in a new tab), Smith(opens in a new tab), and Upton(opens in a new tab)) over election websites that discriminated against individuals with vision or motor disabilities. Under the agreements, the counties committed to making all future and existing online election content accessible and hiring an independent auditor to evaluate their websites.

Together, these cases make one thing clear: WCAG 2.1 Level AA is no longer a “recommendation” written into the 2024 rule. The DOJ has consistently written it into settlement agreements, making it the practical benchmark for what compliance looks like in enforcement — regardless of where a covered entity falls on the compliance deadline timeline.

What the DOJ’s Position Means for Private Businesses Under Title III

Title III of the ADA applies to private businesses that serve the public, and the DOJ’s position is that Title III’s accessibility obligations include websites, even though the agency has not yet issued a Title III web rule. 

That may not change soon, either. In September 2025, the DOJ announced it would re-examine all ADA regulations(opens in a new tab) under both Title II and Title III on an unspecified timeline, and a dedicated Title III web rulemaking has been paused indefinitely. For now, no equivalent rule exists for private businesses.

What private businesses do have is ongoing legal exposure. Title III enforcement hasn’t stopped; lawsuits have continued to increase at a steady rate; and courts have generally applied WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark in settlement agreements, even without a binding rule. Even without a formal standard, the lack of clarity for private businesses has fueled more litigation, not less. 

The practical takeaway: private businesses are operating under the same interpretive framework the DOJ has upheld since 1996 (that the ADA applies to web content) without the benefit of a codified compliance standard to point to. 

How AudioEye Aligns with DOJ-Stated Requirements

The DOJ has been consistent on one point across every announcement since 2022: web accessibility is a legal requirement, it applies to websites, and the agency intends to enforce it. 

What the DOJ’s guidance and enforcement record make clear is that compliance requires true accessibility, not the appearance of it. The standard exists; the question is whether you can demonstrate you’ve met it.

That’s what AudioEye is built for. Our platform combines automated detection with expert audits and expert-written custom fixes, an approach designed to surface what automated scans miss and document what compliance actually looks like under scrutiny. 

The DOJ’s position isn’t ambiguous. The question for most organizations is whether their accessibility approach can withstand it.

See how AudioEye aligns with DOJ requirements.