Website accessibility is no longer optional for your town.
A U.S. Department of Justice rule under Title II of the ADA now requires state and local government websites to meet a specific technical standard — WCAG 2.1 Level AA — by a fixed date. Most government websites don't meet it today. Munikit does, on every page, before it ships.
The scale of the problem
Know your date.
The DOJ's 2024 rule set the standard and the dates; an April 2026 update adjusted the timeline. These are the deadlines that apply now.
The rule is published
The DOJ publishes its final rule under ADA Title II, setting WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the required standard for the web content and mobile apps of all state and local government entities.
Larger jurisdictions — population 50,000 and over
Cities and counties with 50,000 or more residents must have their websites conforming to WCAG 2.1 AA by this date.
Smaller towns & special districts — under 50,000
Smaller municipalities and special-district governments — the majority of local government — must conform by this date. There is no size exemption: a town of 1,500 is covered just like a city of 500,000.
A note on the dates. Many vendor sites still cite "April 2026 / April 2027" — those were the original deadlines. The DOJ extended them by roughly a year in an interim final rule. We keep this page current because getting the regulation right is the whole point. Always confirm against ada.gov for your specific entity.
Three things worth being clear about
It covers everything you publish
Not just the home page — your PDFs, meeting agendas, images, forms, and online services all have to be accessible. Accessibility isn't a one-time project; it's an ongoing property of every document your staff adds.
The liability stays with your town
"Our vendor runs the site" is not a defense. The rule covers content the government makes available, including through a vendor. A compliant platform protects you — but the legal responsibility is the municipality's, which is why the platform you choose matters.
It's enforceable
Title II is enforced both by DOJ action and by private lawsuits, where prevailing plaintiffs can recover attorneys' fees. Thousands of web-accessibility complaints are filed every year. The deadline is real, and so is the exposure.
Compliant by design — not by overlay widget.
Accessibility overlays — those little floating "accessibility" buttons — don't make a site compliant, and the DOJ has been clear they're not a substitute for real conformance. Munikit doesn't use them. Instead, every component is built accessible from the ground up and tested automatically on every route before it ships.
The result: your municipality starts compliant on day one, and stays that way as long as your staff follow the simple authoring guardrails the system enforces — like requiring a description on every image upload.
See the accessibility features →- Built and tested to WCAG 2.1 Level AA
- Automated accessibility sweep on every page, every release
- Full keyboard navigation — no mouse required
- Screen-reader-correct structure and landmarks
- Color contrast verified across every component
- Image uploads require alt text — nothing slips through
- Emergency alerts announce themselves to assistive tech
- No overlay widgets, no accessibility consultant required
An honest note on accessibility claims
We won't promise you "100% compliant forever." No honest vendor can — accessibility depends partly on the content your staff add after launch, and no automated tool certifies full conformance. What we promise is a platform built and tested to WCAG 2.1 AA, authoring tools that keep new content accessible, and a team that actually tracks the regulation. That's the defensible position — and it's the one that holds up if anyone ever asks.
One standard satisfies all of them.
In Ontario, the AODA already requires public-sector websites to meet WCAG. The federal Accessible Canada Act points to WCAG 2.1 AA, and several provinces have their own regimes. Building to WCAG 2.1 Level AA satisfies the Canadian requirements and the U.S. ADA rule at the same time — so a Munikit site is ready on both sides of the border. (For Quebec, French-language parity under Bill 96 is handled by Munikit's built-in bilingual content model.)
Get ahead of the deadline, not caught by it.
Request a demo and we'll show you exactly how a Munikit site meets WCAG 2.1 AA — and give your municipality a clear path to a compliant website well before your date.
Request a demoSources: U.S. Department of Justice, Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps and Small Entity Compliance Guide (ada.gov); compliance-date extension via the DOJ interim final rule (Federal Register, April 2026); accessibility-failure statistics from the WebAIM Million 2024 report. This page is informational and not legal advice; confirm your municipality's obligations with counsel.