Key Highlights:The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that came into effect in July 1990. Its purpose is to protect people from discrimination based on factors such as race, color, gender, disability, etc. ADA mandates that all businesses in the private and public sectors must provide equal access to physical spaces and opportunities such as employment. In 1990, there were no websites as we have today, and so website accessibility was not written into ADA. Digital accessibility cases have been won (or lost) over the years through case law interpretations of the ADA by applying it to digital content. In every case, the plaintiff has to prove discrimination on the basis of disability under the ADA. The US Department of Justice had been promising for over a decade to bring about legislation under ADA to cover websites. On May 19, 2023, the Dept of Education and the Dept of Justice in the US issued a joint “Dear Colleague” letter on Online Accessibility at Postsecondary Institutions. Finally, they added a new web and mobile accessibility rule to Title II of the ADA on April 24, 2024. It is called Non-discrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities. The new ADA regulations mandate that all state and local government entities including public K-12 and public higher education institutions, and their third-party software suppliers, must meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, barring some exceptions stated in the rule, such as archived content. The time frame for compliance spans the next 2 to 3 years. Compliance deadline is April 24, 2026, for entities situated in US State/Local government constituencies with a population of 50,000 or more people. Where the population is less than that, the deadline is April 26, 2027 (24 being a Saturday). Private sector education institutions are not covered by this rule. Additional Resources:Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments – ADA article AIG Sep 2024 ADA Title II Sam.mp4 – Recording 15 minutes D2L webinar on Title II updates Nov 7, 2024 – Recording 60 minutes Lainey Feingold - Finally! There are Technical Standards Deque webinar on ADA Title II - Recording Deque webinar slides 3PlayMedia’s article on ADA Title II Level Access blog ADA Title II Updates: The DOJ’s New Rule Deque blog Stay up with ADA Title II updates?