ADA Website Compliance for Public Entities

Quick Facts:

Get Your Website ADA Compliant Before the 2027-2028 Deadlines

Identify risks, fix accessibility issues, and avoid costly penalties with a comprehensive audit.

ADA Compliance – sound familiar? For many public entity websites, it’s something you’ve never heard of or maybe something “you’d get to later when you have time.” Or maybe you tried and were intimidated by the terminology – compliant, non-compliant, exempt, nonexempt, Level A, Level AA…

Regardless, the clock is now ticking. Federal guidelines now include a firm 2027 date by which most public entities need to be WCAG 2.1 AA conformant to comply with new DOJ rules for Title II of the ADA.

Our team at Insyteful can help you quickly identify gaps, fix issues, and create a clear path to compliance across your websites, documents, forms, and digital content.

Compliance Deadlines

If your public entity serves more than 50,000 people, your deadline is:

APRIL 26, 2027

If your public entity serves fewer than 50,000 people, your deadline is:

APRIL 26, 2028

The 2027–2028 ADA deadlines are approaching fast.
Non-compliance could mean lawsuits, fines, and lost opportunities.

What’s Included in Your ADA Compliance Audit

Audit & Issue Detection

Our two-step audit process combines advanced scanning tools with expert manual review to uncover accessibility issues across your website, including:

WCAG 2.1 Level AA violations
Navigation and usability barriers
Issues within forms, documents, videos,
and key user flows

Detailed Risk Report

You’ll receive a detailed report that outlines:

Identified accessibility risks
Severity levels (high, medium, low)
The potential impact of each issue
Specific recommendations for how to
fix them

Actionable Next Steps

Your report includes a prioritized plan so you can:

Address the highest-risk issues first
Allocate resources efficiently
Move toward compliance with
confidence

Flexible Remediation

You’re in control of how issues get fixed.

Our experienced developers can handle everything for you.

Your internal team can implement the recommended changes.

Our team is ready to step in and efficiently resolve the issues identified in your audit, so you can reach compliance faster and with less risk.

FAQs

What is ADA Compliance

ADA compliance refers to following the rules and standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a U.S. civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.

At its core, ADA Compliance means making sure that people with disabilities have equal access and opportunity in everyday life—whether that’s entering a building or using a website.

Note that you may see compliance and conformance used interchangeably. Please keep in mind that compliance applies to law while conformance applies to specifications.

Who Must Comply & When (2027-2028)

In 2024 the U.S. Department of Justice ruled that state and local governments must make their websites and mobile apps accessible under the ADA – specifically that these sites become WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliant. For municipalities and counties serving fewer than 50,000 people, an April 26, 2028 deadline was set for compliance. If you serve a population greater than 50,000 your deadline is April 26, 2027.

This is the key takeaway:

This is no longer guidance
This is no longer optional
This is now a defined federal requirement with a deadline

What Are the Levels of ADA Compliance

When people talk about “levels” of ADA compliance, they’re usually referring to standards from the World Wide Web Consortium called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines—not different versions of the ADA law itself.

The ADA doesn’t define levels like A, AA, AAA—but courts and regulators often use WCAG as the benchmark, especially for websites and digital accessibility.

For your website, Level AA is the industry standard and what most ADA lawsuits and settlements expect.

Common Accessibility Issues That Put you at Risk

Typical areas of concern within a website include:

What's at Stake if You're Not Compliant

As of 2024, DOJ penalties may result in a $115,231 fine for first offenders, increasing to $230,464 for second offenses (42 U.S.C. 12188(b)(2)(C)(i)). While in many cases remediation is a likely first step before legal action, the cost of that timely remediation, along with any legal expenses, may add up to a significant expense as well.

Are There Any Shortcuts to be Compliant

Automated ‘overlays’ can only fix issues their authors were aware of and often require the site layout matches a certain structure to work properly. The site owners are ultimately responsible for ADA compliance.

Resources