The DOJ Title II web rule: who it covers and the new dates

What the rule is

DOJ's Title II web and mobile app rule was published in the Federal Register on 24 April 2024 (89 FR 31320). The rule took effect on 24 June 2024; compliance dates came later. It added a new subpart H to DOJ's Title II regulations, 28 CFR 35.200 to 35.205, plus new definitions in 35.104.

The rule's technical standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA (not 2.2), and it means the 5 June 2018 edition of WCAG 2.1. “Web content” is defined broadly: text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations and documents such as PDFs, along with the code that defines their structure and behaviour.

Meeting a newer standard is allowed. Under the rule's equivalent facilitation section, other designs or methods are fine if they result in “substantially equivalent or greater accessibility and usability”, and DOJ's fact sheet gives a future WCAG 3.0 as its example. Content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1, so a site built to 2.2 Level AA covers the rule's list. What changed between the two is in WCAG 2.2 changes.

Who it covers, and which date applies

The rule binds public entities: every state and local government, their departments and agencies, special purpose districts, Amtrak and commuter authorities. DOJ's fact sheet lists examples: benefits and social services offices, public schools, community colleges and universities, police departments, courts, elections offices, public hospitals and clinics, parks and recreation programs, public libraries and transit agencies.

Which date applies turns on two defined terms.

• Total population is the Census Bureau's figure from the most recent decennial Census. An independent school district uses the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates instead, and a department with no figure of its own, such as a city library or police department, uses the population of the government it belongs to.
• A special district government is a public entity, other than a county, municipality, township or independent school district, set up under state law for one function or a few, with its own administrative and fiscal autonomy, and with no population calculated by the Census Bureau. Whether a district qualifies depends on that definition, not on its name.
• School districts are not special districts, DOJ says. A city school district uses the city's population and a county school district the county's.

The full definitions are in 28 CFR 35.104. Private businesses that serve the public fall under Title III instead, which has no web regulation of this kind; that is covered in what the ADA asks of a business website.

The five exceptions

The rule lists five kinds of content that do not have to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Each has conditions, and content that misses one condition is covered again. The wording below follows 28 CFR 35.201 and the definitions in 35.104; the examples of what is not covered are DOJ's own.

• Archived web content

  Content created before the compliance date (or reproducing older paper or other media), kept only for reference, research or recordkeeping, not altered after archiving, and stored in an area clearly marked as archived. All four conditions must hold.

  Not covered by it: Council minutes created after the compliance date, even if filed in the archive section.

• Preexisting conventional electronic documents

  PDF, word processor, presentation and spreadsheet files available before the compliance date, unless they are currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in a service, program or activity.

  Not covered by it: A 2020 PDF licence application that people still use to apply.

• Content posted by a third party

  Content posted by a third party, unless the third party is posting under a contractual, licensing or other arrangement with the government.

  Not covered by it: Calendars, scheduling tools, maps, reservation and payment systems from an outside company, which the government itself posts.

• Individualized, password-protected documents

  Conventional electronic documents about a specific person, their property or their account, and password-protected or otherwise secured.

  Not covered by it: The same bill shown as an HTML page, or a PDF about a rate rise posted for every customer.

• Preexisting social media posts

  A government’s social media posts made before its compliance date.

  Not covered by it: Posts made after that date.

Three other ways the rule can be met

• A conforming alternate version, a second, accessible copy of the same content, is allowed “only where it is not possible to make web content directly accessible due to technical or legal limitations” (35.202).
• Fundamental alteration or undue burden. A government that can show full compliance would fundamentally alter a service or cause undue financial and administrative burdens must comply as far as it can. The decision is made by the head of the entity or a designee, in a written statement of reasons, and the government must still find another way to give people the benefit of the service (35.204).
• Minimal impact. A government not in full compliance is deemed to meet the rule if it can show the shortfall has so small an effect that people with disabilities can still get the same information, interactions and transactions with “substantially equivalent timeliness, privacy, independence, and ease of use” (35.205). DOJ's example is text on a park information page at a contrast ratio of 4.45:1, against the 4.5:1 that Level AA asks for.

None of the three is a shortcut. Each puts the burden of proof on the government, and the fact sheet says the minimal-impact rule cannot be used to avoid trying to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The colour contrast requirements explain the 4.5:1 line in that example.

What the 2026 extension changed, and what “may revisit” means

On 20 April 2026 DOJ published an interim final rule (91 FR 20902) that pushed every compliance date back one year. It changed the dates and nothing else: the standard is still WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and the exceptions are the same. Comments on the extension closed 22 June 2026, and as of 23 October 2026 the Federal Register shows no later action on this rule.

An NPRM is a notice of proposed rulemaking: a draft put out for public comment. So DOJ has said it may revisit the rule, not that it will change it. The same passage says that if no such notice is issued, and nothing suggests a further delay, DOJ “fully anticipates implementing the regulation at the new deadline”. Any change to the substance would have to come through that public process first.

The extension also does not pause the existing duty. In DOJ's words, “Regardless of the compliance dates, covered entities have an ongoing obligation” to make the services, programs and activities they offer online accessible under Title II. A person who cannot use a county's booking form today can still ask, and complain, today.

What it means for businesses that work for governments

The rule binds the government, not its suppliers. But it reaches the content and apps a government provides “directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements” (35.200), and DOJ's fact sheet gives two plain examples:

• A county parks page must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA even if a local web design company made it and updates it for the county.
• A city's parking payment app must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA even if a private company runs it.

The third-party exception does not help here either: content a contractor posts for a government, and tools a government adds from an outside company, such as calendars, maps, booking and payment systems, are covered. So if you build sites, run software or produce documents and videos for a city, school or county, expect your work to be measured against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and expect contracts and renewals to say so. What a contract requires of you is between you and the government; read it, and ask a lawyer if it is unclear.

Buyers usually ask for proof. For software that is often an Accessibility Conformance Report: see what a VPAT is and the VPAT template. For a website, a dated audit against WCAG 2.1 Level AA or later, from the WCAG audit services compared. Documents and video have their own specialists, in PDF remediation services and captioning services.

Quick reference

• The rule: 89 FR 31320, published 24 April 2024, effective 24 June 2024; 28 CFR 35.200 to 35.205.
• Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA, for web content and mobile apps, including those provided through contractors.
• Dates now: 26 April 2027 for governments of 50,000 or more; 26 April 2028 for smaller ones and all special district governments.
• Exceptions: archived content, older office documents, third-party posts, individual secured documents, older social media posts, each with conditions.
• Other routes: conforming alternate versions only for technical or legal limits; undue burden with a written statement; minimal impact, proved by the government.
• The future: DOJ has said it may revisit the rule; until it does, the 2027 and 2028 dates stand.
• Businesses: the rule binds governments, and the work a business does for one is measured against it.

To see where a site stands against the standard today, start with the WCAG 2.2 AA checklist, which covers every 2.1 AA criterion too.