School districts will have another year to comply with new regulations designed to make their websites more accessible to people with disabilities after the U.S. Department of Justice delayed a deadline originally set for this month.
The regulations under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act were set to take effect April 24 for public agencies, including school districts, serving communities with more than 50,000 people. The deadline for smaller agencies and districts was originally set for April 2027 and has been delayed to 2028.
Here’s what you need to know about the rule, why districts wanted extra time, and why disability rights advocates are concerned by the delay.
Why do school districts need web accessibility rules?
Title II of the ADA, the nation’s primary disability rights law, says that people cannot be excluded from accessing or benefiting from services provided by public entities because of their disabilities. For school districts—which increasingly rely on web platforms to share information, communicate with families, and abide by open-records laws—that means ensuring everyone from students to taxpayers can access, read, and interact with information and forms posted online.
The rules of accessibility for physical spaces are clearly defined under current ADA regulations, which require building features like ramps at entrances and restroom stalls large enough to accommodate wheelchairs. But because the web was in its infancy when the Justice Department wrote those rules in 1991, agency officials did not include specific details about digital accessibility.
Though the Justice and Education departments have long held that online content must be accessible under the ADA, public entities, including school districts, have lacked clear regulations defining what that means.
“The Department has consistently heard from members of the public—including public entities and individuals with disabilities—that there is a need for additional information on how to specifically comply with the ADA in this context,” the Justice Department’s delayed regulation says.
What do the web accessibility rules for schools say?
The recently delayed web-accessibility rule was originally issued by former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024 following years of discussions that started in 2010.
The regulations require that schools ensure that content on the desktop and mobile versions of their websites and smartphone apps complies with version 2 of accessibility guidelines created by an international organization called the Web Accessibility Initiative. That includes content hosted by third-party apps and websites through agreements or contracts with districts, like sites that host school board documents, the rule said.
“Just as stairs can exclude people who use wheelchairs from accessing government buildings, inaccessible web content and mobile apps can exclude people with a range of disabilities from accessing government services,” the rule said. “It is critical to ensure that individuals with disabilities can access important web content and mobile apps quickly, easily, independently, privately, and equally.”
The guidelines apply to all online text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations, and documents. How they apply:
- Online content, including charts and forms, must be compatible with assistive technology, like speech-recognition software or screen readers used by blind people.
- Videos and sound files must include captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
- Photos and images must include embedded alternative-text descriptions that can be read by assistive software.
- Users must be able to resize text and and change contrast levels to make it easier to read.
Why did some school districts want to delay the web accessibility rule?
Some school districts and advocacy organizations like AASA, the School Superintendents Association, argued that complying with the new regulations is costly and requires extensive staff time.
In a survey of 200 school communications directors conducted by the National School Public Relations Association and Sogolytics, a web analytics company, just 14% of respondents said their districts are “close to completing compliance work.” Forty-six percent of respondents said their district had made accessibility “a high priority,” according to the survey, which was conducted last August and September.
Respondents said their districts’ accessibility work largely focused on public-facing websites but excluded apps, third-party parent communication platforms, and learning-management systems. Seventy-four percent of respondents identified vendor limitations as a barrier in accessibility efforts.
Are disability rights groups concerned about the delay?
Disability rights organizations called the delay a serious setback that will further hinder the people they represent from fully participating in public life.
“This delay is not abstract,” said a statement from the American Association of People with Disabilities. “As more and more government services, from public benefits applications to emergency alert notifications to voter information, move exclusively online, inaccessible government websites are not a minor inconvenience. They are a barrier to the full participation of people with disabilities in society.”
The National Federation of the Blind said its most immediate concern is for blind students “who are among those most directly harmed when public entities rely on inaccessible websites and mobile apps for course materials, assignments, and student portals.”
“When information is not accessible, blind students are excluded from the same curricula as their peers, face delays in completing coursework and degrees, and encounter unnecessary barriers to entering the workforce and participating fully in society,” the organization said in a statement.
