Effective
DOJ ADA Title II — compliance dates extended
Interim Final Rule published April 20, 2026 (91 FR 20902). Compliance dates for state and local government entities extended by one year.
28 CFR §35.200(b)(1)–(2)
Regulatory update · April 2026
Federal digital accessibility rules are actively being amended.
Two federal agencies with authority over digital accessibility — the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services — have moved in April 2026 to extend or reconsider their recently adopted compliance dates. This page tracks the current status of both actions, their legal effect, and what covered entities should consider.
Last updated: April 23, 2026. This page is maintained as the regulatory picture evolves.
At a glance
Under review
HHS Section 504 — IFR pending at OIRA
Interim Final Rule received by OIRA on April 17, 2026 (RIN 0945-AA30). No Federal Register publication yet; May 11, 2026 deadline remains legally operative as of this writing.
45 CFR Part 84
Department of Justice
DOJ Interim Final Rule — April 20, 2026
The Department of Justice published an Interim Final Rule extending the compliance dates for web and mobile accessibility requirements under ADA Title II. The rule is effective immediately and open for a sixty-day post-publication comment period.
What changed
| Entity type | Prior date | New date |
|---|---|---|
| Public entities, total population 50,000+ | April 24, 2026 | April 26, 2027 |
| Public entities <50,000 · special districts | April 26, 2027 | April 26, 2028 |
The underlying technical standard — WCAG 2.1 Level AA — is unchanged. The rule extends the implementation timeline only; it does not alter the scope of covered entities or the substantive accessibility requirements.
Why DOJ acted
The Department stated in the rule's preamble that it "overestimated the capabilities (whether staffing or technology) of covered entities to comply with the rule in the time frames provided." The specific factors cited:
Technology has not caught up with the rule's assumptions
The Department acknowledged that "advanced technology, such as generative AI, does not yet reliably automate the remediation of inaccessible content at scale." Manual remediation effort is consequently larger than originally estimated, particularly for STEM and dynamically generated content.
Small-entity cost estimates were revised
The SBA Office of Advocacy and higher-education associations submitted comments through OMB's 2025 deregulation solicitation indicating that the original compliance cost estimates understated the burden on small public entities. The Department accepted this revision.
Dynamic references in the incorporated standard create notice problems
WCAG 2.1 (incorporated by reference) contains hyperlinks to W3C-maintained supplementary materials that can change outside any rulemaking process. The Department flagged this as a fair-notice concern and signaled that future rulemaking may address the standard itself.
Litigation risk from premature enforcement
Title II creates a private right of action. The Department reasoned that if the original compliance dates took effect before entities could reasonably comply, covered entities would face attorney-fee exposure under 42 USC §12205 even where fundamental-alteration or undue-burden defenses might eventually prevail.
Estimated cost savings
The Department's own Regulatory Impact Analysis estimates the one-year delay at $2.775 billion in present-value cost savings over a ten-year horizon at a 7% discount rate, with approximately 53% of those savings accruing to small entities.
Legal posture of the rule
The rule was issued as an Interim Final Rule, bypassing the Administrative Procedure Act's standard notice-and-comment requirement under the "good cause" exception at 5 USC §553(b)(B). The Department is accepting post-publication comments through June 22, 2026. The substantive obligations of the 2024 final rule remain in force; only the compliance dates are amended.
Read the full rule at the Federal Register →
91 FR 20902 · Docket No. CRT150 · AG Order No. 6742-2026 · RIN 1190-AA82
Department of Health and Human Services
HHS Section 504 — Interim Final Rule pending at OIRA
A proposed amendment to the HHS Section 504 rule is currently under review at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The May 11, 2026 first compliance date remains legally operative; no Federal Register notice has been published as of April 23, 2026.
Current status
- RIN
- 0945-AA30
- Stage
- Interim Final Rule under EO 12866 review
- Received by OIRA
- April 17, 2026
- Economic significance
- Economically significant
- Agency
- HHS / Office for Civil Rights
What is known
The rule's title on the OIRA docket is "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Recipients of Department of Health and Human Services Financial Assistance" — the same rulemaking framework that produced the 2024 Section 504 update. The text has not been published; the scope and extent of any compliance-date amendment are not public as of this writing.
OIRA review is a required step for economically significant rules before Federal Register publication. The review typically takes 30 to 90 days, though the DOJ analogue moved from OIRA to publication in a matter of days. HHS could publish before the May 11 compliance date.
What remains legally operative
Until a Federal Register rule amends the Section 504 timeline, the existing dates apply:
| Recipient type | Compliance date |
|---|---|
| Recipients with 15 or more employees | May 11, 2026 |
| Recipients with fewer than 15 employees | May 10, 2027 |
Practical implications
What this means for compliance planning.
Extensions change the timeline. They do not change the underlying obligation. Three considerations are worth stating plainly.
The substantive rules are unchanged.
Both the DOJ IFR and the pending HHS IFR address compliance dates only. The WCAG 2.1 AA standard, the scope of covered entities, the definition of covered content, and the enforcement mechanisms remain intact. An entity that was in scope on April 19, 2026 is in scope on April 23, 2026.
Section 504 and Title II have different timelines and different enforcement postures.
Section 504 is enforced by HHS Office for Civil Rights primarily through complaint-driven investigations and compliance reviews, with corrective-action plans and federal funding suspension as principal remedies. Title II is enforced through private rights of action as well as DOJ. Entities covered by both frameworks — hospitals, health plans, state health agencies — face two enforcement regimes, not one.
Procurement and litigation pressure is largely independent of the compliance dates.
RFPs increasingly require WCAG 2.1 AA attestations from vendors. Private plaintiffs file accessibility complaints without reference to the regulatory deadlines. Covered entities that wait for the deadline to begin remediation face procurement disqualification and litigation exposure in the interim.
Plan against the current rules, not the current news cycle.
A scoped audit produces the one document covered entities need regardless of how the regulatory picture evolves: a citation-grounded record of the conformance status of their digital properties against WCAG 2.1 AA.