Online Accessibility: ADA Title II and III, Section 508, and WCAG

Online accessibility law in the United States runs on two tracks: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sets the legal duty, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) supply the technical yardstick courts and regulators use to measure whether you’ve met it. There is no single federal statute that spells out how every website must be built. Instead, your obligations depend on who you are — a state or local government, a federal agency, or a private business — and the version of WCAG that applies depends on which of those categories you fall into.

Who Has to Make Their Website Accessible

State and Local Governments (ADA Title II)

State and local governments are covered by ADA Title II. In April 2024, the Department of Justice issued a final rule requiring their websites and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The rule took effect on June 24, 2024.¹ It includes carve-outs for archived web content, certain preexisting electronic documents, third-party content not under contract, individualized password-protected documents, and preexisting social media posts.²

Private Businesses (ADA Title III)

Private businesses that qualify as “places of public accommodation” are covered by ADA Title III. Unlike Title II, Title III has no companion regulation setting a specific technical standard. The DOJ has not told a retailer or restaurant chain which version of WCAG to follow. Courts and consent agreements routinely reference WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark for the ADA’s “effective communication” requirement.³

Whether Title III reaches businesses that exist only online, with no physical storefront, is an open question. The federal appeals courts are split. The Ninth Circuit requires a “nexus” to a physical place of public accommodation. The First, Second, and Seventh Circuits have signaled that online-only businesses may be covered even without one. The Third and Sixth Circuits lean the other way.³ Where a lawsuit gets filed can determine whether it survives at all.

Federal Agencies (Section 508)

Federal agencies fall under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires their electronic and information technology to be accessible to employees and the public. The U.S. Access Board’s January 2017 final rule, effective January 2018, incorporated WCAG 2.0 as the technical standard, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation was updated in August 2021 to fold accessibility into government procurement.⁴ Federal Section 508 standards still formally reference WCAG 2.0, not 2.1 or 2.2.⁵

State Civil Rights Laws

Several states layer additional duties on top of federal law. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act parallels the ADA and provides for statutory damages of $4,000 per violation, which is why so many web accessibility claims are filed under it.⁶ California Government Code Section 7405 directs state agencies to follow federal Section 508 standards, and Section 11135 prohibits disability discrimination in state-funded programs.⁷

Which Version of WCAG Applies to You

WCAG is organized around four principles — content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust — and each version defines testable “success criteria” at three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA. AA is the level almost every regulation targets.⁸

WCAG 2.1, published in June 2018, is the version referenced in the DOJ’s Title II rule and in most private settlements. At the AA level, it requires live captions for audio, audio descriptions for video, a minimum 3:1 contrast ratio for user interface components, content that reflows at narrow screen widths, and text spacing that users can adjust without losing functionality.⁹

WCAG 2.2, published as a W3C Recommendation in October 2023 and updated in December 2024, adds nine more success criteria focused on cognitive accessibility, authentication, and touch-target sizing, and removes one obsolete criterion (4.1.1 Parsing). New AA-level requirements include making sure focused elements are not obscured by other content, offering single-pointer alternatives to drag actions, meeting a minimum touch-target size, and not making authentication depend on memorizing or transcribing information.¹⁰ The W3C recommends organizations adopt 2.2 as their conformance target even when policies still name earlier versions.¹¹

Government Website Deadlines and the Pending Lawsuit

The DOJ’s 2024 Title II rule originally set tiered compliance deadlines: April 24, 2026, for governments serving populations of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2027, for smaller governments and special districts.¹

In April 2026, the DOJ issued an interim final rule extending both dates by one year. Larger entities now have until April 26, 2027, and smaller entities and special districts have until April 26, 2028. The required technical standard is still WCAG 2.1 Level AA.¹²

Those extended deadlines are being challenged. On May 21, 2026, the National Federation of the Blind sued the DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (Case No. 1:26-cv-02007-RDB), alleging the extension violated the Administrative Procedure Act by skipping public notice and comment and by being arbitrary and capricious. The NFB is asking the court to strike down the interim rules and reinstate the original deadlines.¹³¹⁴ The case is pending. Government entities should plan against the possibility that the original 2026 and 2027 deadlines could be restored.

What Private Businesses Face Without a Fixed Standard

The absence of a Title III regulation has not slowed enforcement. Private lawsuits have become the primary enforcement mechanism against businesses. Federal filings rose from 814 in 2017 to 3,255 in 2022, dipped to 2,794 in 2023 and 2,452 in 2024, then climbed 27% to 3,117 in 2025. Counting state court filings, more than 5,000 total ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025.¹⁵¹⁶

New York and Florida dominate the filings. In 2025, New York accounted for 1,021 federal filings, Florida 961, and Illinois 585. California, where courts generally require a physical nexus, saw only 4 federal filings — though state court claims under Unruh are a separate matter.¹⁵ Most cases settle early. Businesses have limited affirmative defenses, and successful challenges typically hinge on whether the plaintiff had standing.³

The most prominent case in this space is Robles v. Domino’s Pizza. Guillermo Robles, who is blind and uses screen-reading software, sued Domino’s in 2016 after he could not order food through its website or app. In January 2019, the Ninth Circuit held that the ADA applies to websites and apps that serve as a gateway to a physical place of public accommodation, reasoning that the statute covers services “of” a place of public accommodation, not just services “in” one. The court rejected Domino’s argument that the lack of specific technical regulations violated due process, and clarified that WCAG conformance is a possible remedy rather than the source of the underlying legal duty.¹⁷ The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October 2019, leaving the Ninth Circuit ruling in place.¹⁸ The practical takeaway: businesses cannot avoid accessibility duties by pointing to the absence of a specific technical rule.

Accessibility Overlays Are Not a Compliance Shortcut

Accessibility overlays are JavaScript widgets that vendors market as one-line fixes for WCAG compliance. They do not deliver what the marketing promises. Overlays can adjust surface-level issues like color contrast and text size, but they cannot repair fundamental source-code problems such as missing headings, unlabeled form fields, poor image descriptions, and broken navigation structures. Studies suggest they catch only 30% to 50% of accessibility issues.¹⁹ A 2025 WebAIM report found that 95% of the top one million websites contain accessibility barriers.³

Installing an overlay will not stop lawsuits. Nearly 600 companies using accessibility widgets were sued in 2022, and roughly 25% of accessibility lawsuits in 2024 involved companies with overlays on their sites.²⁰³ A settlement involving payroll company ADP stated explicitly that overlay solutions “will not suffice to achieve Accessibility.”

Regulators have started policing the vendors themselves. In April 2025, the Federal Trade Commission ordered accessiBe to pay $1 million to settle charges that it deceptively marketed its “accessWidget” as capable of making any website WCAG-compliant. The FTC found accessiBe falsely claimed its code snippet would make sites “30% compliant immediately” and “fully compliant” within 48 hours, when the widget failed to make essential components like menus, headings, images, and tables accessible. The consent order bars accessiBe from making unsupported compliance claims for 20 years.²¹

How to Actually Get Compliant

The DOJ recommends a combination of automated testing and manual assessment. A clean automated report does not mean a site is accessible, and a report full of errors does not mean every barrier has been identified.²² Start with the pages that support your most essential tasks — bill payments, applications, forms — and fix the templates that appear on many pages before working on individual pages.²³

The core practices are consistent across regulators and standards. Provide descriptive text alternatives for images. Caption all video. Make sure everything works with a keyboard alone. Keep color contrast at 4.5:1 or better for normal text. Use clear heading structures. Build forms with accessible labels and error messages.²²

Using a third-party vendor for web development does not transfer legal responsibility. Require vendors to supply accessibility documentation, include compliance warranties in the contract, and reject terms that try to disclaim accessibility obligations.²³ Add a feedback channel so users can report barriers, and train the people who create content, design pages, and buy technology — accessibility erodes quickly when it is treated as a one-time project.

If You Sell Into the EU

The European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) became enforceable across all 27 EU member states on June 28, 2025. It applies to e-commerce, banking services, e-books, smartphones, computers, and self-service terminals, and it reaches any organization selling to EU consumers regardless of where the business is based.²⁴ Beyond the website itself, the EAA requires accessible customer support, published accessibility statements, disclosure of the accessibility features of products sold, and accessible payment and identification processes. Its functional requirements align with WCAG and the European harmonized standard EN 301 549.²⁵ If your customer base includes EU consumers, U.S. compliance alone is not enough.

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Government Entities
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Final Rule: Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps
3
American Bar Association. Digital Accessibility Under Title III of the ADA
4
Section508.gov. IT Accessibility Laws and Policies
5
U.S. Access Board. W3C WCAG 2.2 Now Available
6
Taylor Wessing. Website and Digital Accessibility in the USA
7
Section508.gov. State IT Accessibility Laws and Policies
8
W3C. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Overview
9
W3C. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
10
W3C. What’s New in WCAG 2.2
11
W3C. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2
12
Federal Register. Extension of Compliance Dates for Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Applications
13
Democracy Forward. National Federation of the Blind v. DOJ Complaint
14
Disability Scoop. Trump Administration Sued Over Delay of Accessibility Rules
15
Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025
16
Fox Rothschild LLP. ADA Website Lawsuit Trends: What 2025 Filings Mean for 2026
17
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Robles v. Domino’s Pizza LLC
18
CNBC. Supreme Court Hands Victory to Blind Man Who Sued Domino’s Over Website Accessibility
19
Vispero. Accessibility Overlays in Digital Content
20
Lainey Feingold. Overlay Legal Update
21
Federal Trade Commission. FTC Approves Final Order Requiring accessiBe To Pay $1 Million
22
U.S. Department of Justice. Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA
23
U.S. Department of Justice. First Steps Toward ADA Title II Web Accessibility Compliance
24
Government of Ireland. European Accessibility Act
25
Bird & Bird. A Guide to Navigating the European Accessibility Act