It’s been a busy summer, but way back in June the Civil Rights Division of the US DOJ released a final rule revision to the American with Disabilities Act. This new rule establishes WCAG 2.1 AA as the new minimum web content accessibility standard for all public entities.
TL;DR: Ed techs who serve US “public entities” must conform to WCAG 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026*, according to a recent DOJ rule revision of ADA law.
FAQ
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, so please consult with your own legal counsel before making any business decisions based on the following information and opinions.
What changed and why?
Public entities have been required to ensure the accessibility of their web content and apps for a long time. The DOJ now says that in order to comply with ADA law public entities must ensure their web content and apps conform to a specific, well-defined accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA.
A little background: In the US, federal law is in place to protect and support the rights of individuals with disabilities, primarily three interrelated laws: ADA, the Rehabilitation Act (504/508), and IDEA. Technically, ADA requires that any federally funded organization provides “reasonable accommodations” for individuals with disabilities. The Rehabilitation Act requires that all orgs that serve the public provide equal access to individuals with disabilities.
In the internet era, these have been broadly interpreted as requiring that any digital content or applications are equally accessible to individuals with disabilities.
And while the WCAG standard has long been the de facto accessibility standard for all web content and apps, it has never been the official standard — until now.
This shouldn’t be a big change for ed techs. Educational institutions have long relied on WCAG as the accessibility standard in evaluating ed tech purchases, so this mostly formalizes what was already a well-established practice.
When did this happen?
The final rule is in effect as of June 2024, following a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that was published back in August 2023.
Who does this ruling apply to?
Any “public entity” (e.g. public schools and districts, Title IV colleges and universities), as well as the vendors that provide content or applications to those public entities.
Are you sure this applies to ed tech vendors, too?
Yes. Subpart H clarifies that “a public entity’s ‘website’ is intended to include not only the websites hosted by the public entity, but also websites operated on behalf of a public entity by a third party”, and that “the general requirements for web content and mobile app accessibility apply when the public entity provides or makes available web content or mobile apps directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements.” See The Department of Justice 28 CFR Part 35, p 86.
This includes (very specifically) digital content, digital textbooks, etc. (see p 214)
When do we have to be WCAG 2.1 AA conformant?
Deadlines are in place for public entities, so it depends on who your customers are:
- April 24, 2026 for public entities with < 50,000 persons
- April 24, 2027 for public entities with >=50,000 persons
What is WCAG 2.1?
The W3C‘s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the internationally recognized technical standard to ensure that digital content and applications are consistently accessible to people with disabilities.
WCAG is used to benchmark accessibility according to specific “Success Criteria” mean to guide developer and evaluators toward ensuring web content is Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust for all users.
2.1 simply refers to a version of WCAG, which was recommended by the W3C in Sept 2023.
What’s this AA stuff?
A web site or app can meet WCAG conformance at three different levels: A (the lowest), AA, or AAA (the highest). Anything below A is simply non-conformant.
The DOJ is saying that Level AA conformance is the minimum requirement. This corresponds with the common practice amongst ed tech buyers to require AA conformance of their vendors at a minimum.
In order to be Level AA conformant, An ed tech solution must meet every Level A and Level AA success criteria.
For example, when providing pre-recorded video content, Level A requires that accessible alternatives be provided (e.g. text or captions), but Level AA also specifically requires an audio description of any video be made available (Success Criterion 1.2.5).
How do we become WCAG 2.1 AA conformant?
The short answer for ed techs is…
- Evaluate your product against the WCAG 2.1 guidelines (internally or externally).
- Update your product as needed to achieve AA conformance.
- Publish the WCAG conformance results via a VPAT on your web site.
This all should probably start with a conversation between an ed tech’s CEO, CPO, CTO, and legal counsel.
Isn’t WCAG a moving target? What happens when WCAG 2.2 comes out?
WCAG will continue to evolve. In fact, right now 2.2 is the latest standard, and WCAG 3 is a working draft. Thankfully, the differences between versions tend to be pretty incremental.
Regardless, as long as WCAG remains the popular standard, ed techs should expect to do what’s necessary to conform with newer versions of WCAG over time — whether the DOJ explicitly updates its rules to include newer versions or not.
Could this new rule be made irrelevant without Chevron?
Maybe, but don’t count on it.
It does seem like the US Supreme Court’s June 2024 Loper Bright Enters decision to overturn the 1984 “Chevron deference” ruling could potentially impact this revision of ADA rules, especially if a public educational institution or ed tech provider were to successfully sue. The Chevron deference essentially says that when Congress passes a law that lacks specificity (in this case, ADA), courts should defer to federal agency decisions (in this case the DOJ) to enforce the law. That’s no longer acceptable under this latest Supreme Court ruling, and so laws must only be followed as written and/or interpreted by courts (when applicable).
That said, I think it’s unlikely that this latest ADA rule will be challenged. If it were to be obviated, we might expect Congress to simply pass new legislation formalizing a WCAG requirement as part of the ADA law.
And even if that doesn’t happen, ed techs should understand that supporting web accessibility is the right thing to do, and ed tech customers will continue to expect or require conformance with WCAG.
Want to Learn More?
First, check out Accessible.org’s fact sheet. It’s more in-depth than this FAQ.
Second, Rarebird is working on a new introductory course on ed tech accessibility for product and engineering leaders . Let me know if you’re interested in the upcoming course — or in getting advice on achieving product accessibility.