Less than a week before new rules broadening the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act were set to take effect, the U.S. Department of Justice is pushing off the deadline by more than a year and opening the door to additional changes.
The agency issued what’s known as an interim final rule Monday delaying implementation of the new requirements, which were designed to address longstanding barriers experienced by people with disabilities as American life has increasingly shifted online.
The original rule, which the Justice Department finalized in 2024, imposes first-ever technical standards for websites and mobile apps under Title II of the ADA. The requirements apply to online offerings from state and local government entities ranging from courts to public hospitals, parks, libraries, police, transit agencies, school districts, universities and more.
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The federal government gave state and local governments in areas with populations of 50,000 or greater until this Friday to comply. Public entities with smaller populations had an extra year.
Now, however, those deadlines are extended. Under the interim final rule released this week, the Justice Department indicated that governments representing more than 50,000 people will have until April 26, 2027, while the deadline for smaller public entities will shift to April 26, 2028.
The move comes as the Justice Department has been under pressure from school districts, small governments and other affected entities who say they are unprepared to meet the original timeline.
The agency determined that it “overestimated the capabilities” of covered entities, both in terms of staffing and technology, to comply with the rule on schedule.
“This rule extension allows local leaders important additional time to plan, budget and implement these updates,” said Clarence Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities, which had lobbied for extra time. “Accessibility remains an important priority for local leaders and this interim final rule balances the needs of residents with disabilities with the budgetary realities of local governments.”
Disability advocates have argued, however, that the rule was under consideration for more than a decade before it was finalized and that delaying its implementation will harm the very individuals who it is intended to help.
“Years of notice have not been enough, and now the department is rewarding inaction with more time,” said Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. “Every year of delay is another year that a person who is blind cannot apply for the benefits they’re owed, that a person with an intellectual or developmental disability cannot navigate a local agency’s website, that a deaf constituent cannot access critical public safety information.”
Federal officials said they considered the needs of people with disabilities as they weighed whether to alter the deadline, but determined that the delay “might benefit persons with disabilities and disability advocacy organizations” because “it replaces the potential for wasted time and money in litigation with the opportunity for covered entities’ to achieve actual compliance with the rule.”
In the meantime, the Justice Department isn’t ruling out other changes to the web accessibility requirements. The agency indicated that it might issue a new notice of proposed rulemaking within the next year “providing members of the public with an opportunity to comment on the substance of the 2024 final rule and any changes proposed by the department.”
Jennifer Mathis, deputy director at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said there is no reason for the Justice Department to rehash the details of the regulation at this juncture.
“It took 14 years from the time that DOJ first began a rulemaking in this area until the final rule came out, and both people with disabilities and regulated entities have wanted certainty,” she said. “Changing the rule after two years of work by covered entities to come into compliance would not help anyone.”
